Roughcut

Nanaki's View - 'all aboard!'

Throughout the planning process i've been hoping to somehow work in the name of the band and taking inspiration from the logo (Red XIII - also known as Nanaki and his father Seto looking out on the moon - a view, a place ) I came to the idea to name the train station the woman waits at as 'Nanaki's View' station.

High-ho filming away! >.<

2nd October aka today I went to shoot footage down Earith lakes, the footage taken by me and another when i noticed my lack of a third arm is of a girl finding a book, and various shots to set the dream like mood. The girl (me, eep!) did go differently to how i originally planned. Dying my hair white made practice shots too bright and lacking in colour, difficult for later when i plan to edit the exposures, lighting etc. So the night before today's shoot i dyed my hair black and blue which actually proved better to hilight the lolita stylised props. Shots taken included:

* a talcum powder made print dragging along the tree to emulate a ghostly trail/touch, the powder was hidden in my palm as i dragged it along the bark.

* close ups of the book

* moving through the overgrown flowers

* closeups of the upper face over the book edge

* kneeling down the book in my arms and more...

However im not sure if the overcast weather will affect the atmosphere of the piece, to have a fail safe i shall re-shoot similar footage on friday when according to the Met office the weather should have improved. If all fails i could take into consideration colouring the footage either an 'antique' or sepia then making it glow on the most lit areas. The disadvantage with this is the loss of colour symbolism.

Next I need to upload the footage already shot to see the quality and how much i can hope to use. Tomorrow i'll start to add the animated parts, uploading the train station sequence to begin with, to follow will be the knee and plaster scene between the two youths.

Real Life Parts:

Not all of the music video shall be animated, the 40 seconds or so not animated will feature a young girl reading the story.

The Attire:
* Hair white or deep blue, in doll like curls
* Lolita style hairpiece, white roses, pearls and lace
* Frilly shirt and skirt emphasis on innocence
* Pale skin, eyes made up, lips deep blue or blood red, nails long and painted

The Props:
* Old book missing any title or author name

The Location:
Either....
* Sitting in a garden beneath the moonlight
* Sitting beneath a tree on an overcast day (lighting will help 'bleach' the footage)

The Actions:
* Hand leaves a ghostly trail (talcum powder XD ) on the tree
* Sits down noticing the book
* Opens the book beginning the story
* Closes the book, an animated version of the girl walking into the pages of the book

Detailed Timeline...Last 40 Secs:

03:00 -- 03:05

03:05 -- 03:10

03:10 -- 03:15

03:15 -- 03:20

03:20 -- 03:25 TO BE CONTINUED

03:25 -- 03:30

03:30 -- 03:35

03:35 -- 03:40

03:40 -- THE END

Detailed Timeline...Third 60 Secs:

02:00 -- 02:05
02:05 -- 02:10
02:10 -- 02:15
02:15 -- 02:20
02:25 -- 02:30
02:30 -- 02:35 TO BE CONTINUED
02:35 -- 02:40
02:40 -- 02:45
02:45 -- 02:50
02:50 -- 02:55
02:55 -- 03:00

Detailed Timeline...Second 60 Secs:

01:00 -- 01:05

01:05 -- 01:10

01:10 -- 01:15

01:15 -- 01:20

01:20 -- 01:25

01:25 -- 01:30

01:30 -- 01:35

01:35 -- 01:40 TO BE CONTINUED

01:40 -- 01:45

01:45 -- 01:50

01:50 -- 01:55

01:55 -- 02:00

Detailed Timeline...First 60 Secs:

00:00 -- 00:05

00:05 -- 00:10

00:10 -- 00:15

00:15 -- 00:20

00:25 -- 00:30

00:30 -- 00:35

00:35 -- 00:40 ~TO BE CONTINUED~

00:40 -- 00:45

00:45 -- 00:50

00:50 -- 00:55

00:55 -- 01:00

Music Timeline...

in correspendence with key changes in visual storytelling

START

00:00 -- 00:18 book is opened > story begins


00:19 -- 00:36 the two childhood friends become adults > relationship changes


00:37 -- 00:54 they fall in love


00:55 -- 01:12 war breaks out and they comfort each other > but he is called away to fight


01:13 -- 01:33 woman pines for her love


01:34 -- 02:11 woman recieves a letter to say he's coming home > waits at train station day after day....


02:12 -- 02:46 she has aged broken hearted > dies to be replaced by a beautiful garden with a huge majestic tree


02:47 -- 03:07 man returns to find his love gone > dies and completes the garden


03:08 -- 03:35 final book sequence > reader joins the story the cycle starts over.

END

Music Video Ideas...

A Sequence Idea:

* Girl in colour begins to cry, her tears emerge as butterflies that turn a brilliant blue as she turns black and white





* These tears/butterflies turn purple, then blood red til they suddenly fall as though dead, becoming red rose buds





* The rose buds bloom, the girl lifting one to her black and white face, her lips draining and transferring the colour





* However her lips turn black and between the fingers holding the rose blood runs out.

Picture Perfect XD

******Visual ideas, thoughts, influences to take into consideration.....******

Using Picasa and Google i was able to make a collage of ideas to aid the development of the music video.

~lolita style comes in many variations, goth, EGL, pink, etc any variation is eyecatching and rather unique....perhaps an idea for this piece... blue butterflies, like tears they fall and drift away, so light and fragile...animation perhaps

~A broken heart can prove fatal...

~Doll...human or plastic. People become bigger than their stories, and stories can swallow people...

~Once upon a year 3000, Happy never after....

~Venetian masks, decadence, and mystery, 'the dance' life and love.

~Red roses symbolise passion

~War can seperate people physically but not emotionally

In a word...or perhaps 5...

The main focus of my music video aside from being compatible with the music is to create an emotive tale with a twist.

In a word or 5, I shall endeavour to create...

"A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM"

...this is selling point, the main driving point of the video.



The band logo....

Pitch

Combining a profound admiration and inspiration brought by the Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu, Nanaki's View has forged purely instrumental metal music. Having listened to a range of their songs I have come to pitch for the atmospheric track, "Great Warrior".

Knowing the lack of vocals could prove difficult when creating a music video I decided that a strong visual piece with a story line would suit it. However I shall keep in mind the title of the track and endeavour to incorporate this into the video. Another seminal point is matching the emotion in the music to the visuals this will aid audience submersion alowing them to truly 'feel' the music. The music has a bittersweet sound suggesting revelation, love and loss. Taking this in to consideration I have decided to create a tragic love story.


Unfolding the viewer shall see a girl enter an old bookstore finding an untitled, weathered book she decides to open. Alternatively if I can't gain permission to film in a bookstore i'll place the book under a tree. Upon reading/ opening the book, through a mix of animation, silhouetting and acting the story of two stricken lovers shall unfold. Towards the end of the music the girl shall place the book down, during the ECU focusing on the book the wind shall gain strength and flip the pages showing frezeframes of the story just shown finally settling on the last frame she saw, however the reader herself is seen walking away into the story. This is intended to make the audience question just who the girl was, and even if she existed, was it her spirit, her story, her heart broken? The key image within the end will be sakura, or cherry blossoms, the tree will be a symbol of connection between the living and dead.



Stylistically I hope to create a soft dream like quality to the footage, much like old black and white films, perhaps adding a soft focues to the edges for example. I will use colour symbology to convey certain ideas and moods, perhaps using black and white with certain details in colour. Inspired by the decadent style of bands such as Malice Mizer, a japanese visual-kei band that worked for the most part in the 90's. Music video's such as 'Bel Air' for example, the costumes are bright, intricate and exotic, really capturing the magical quality of the bands music.

Initial Ideas

Ideal Music Genre:

As a collective I hope to produce a video for alternative music, more specifically Metal, Industrial or Gothic music. However i'm undecided whether to use a purely instrumental piece or one with both lyrics and music. I understand the music video would need slightly different approaches if it was one or the other, a purely instrumental piece would need a visual story for example, nothing complex, just something befitting the conveyed emotion.

To locate unsigned, alternative bands I turned to social networking sites, Vampire Freaks and Myspace.

www.vampirefreaks.com

www.myspace.com

Stylistic Approaches To Consider...



Malice Mizer- Beast of Blood. Interesting points...Only really 3 shades, black, white and red.




Malice Mizer-Mayonaka Ni Kawashita Yakusoku malice mizer has performed the tale of Dracula, to their own song...

MUSIC VIDEO PROJECT 2007/8

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