Copyright

This is our post that asks, Linkin Park's record label WMG for permission to use their song for our project. In the e-mail we sent. We made sure to let them know that it wouldn't be for commercial gain and for educational purposes only.

Lyric Storyboard So Far

In todays lesson we started working on our lyric storyboard.
Here it is:



















The finished storyboard will come in a later post.

Song Choice

We have finally decided on the song we are using for our coursework, which is:

Linkin Park - 'Papercut'


Vague Concept:
For the concept of the video we took inspiration from our original ideas from the J. Cole - Forbidden Fruit post. We took the idea of conscience from this to include in the video. Ideas of paranoia in the video also came from the lyrics. The video would be about a guys paranoia overwhelming him and how he loses control.
For this we wouldn't need many people, we would need the main character, a few pedestrians in the street who could double as band members in the performance section.

Indecisions

We couldn't decide between the two tracks and asked Miss Walsh to help us decide with her guidance.

However, after listening to our ideas and the tracks she came to a point and decided for both tracks the flaws outweigh the effort and dedication required.

With 'Forbidden Fruit', she seen the idea as too ambitious to complete in such a short period of time along with finding participants.

With 'This Means War', she seen the songs length as too long meaning it would require double the effort and work then what the rest of the class have done.

She concluded we should come to a compromise and try and pick a song that would answer both the flaws and limitations along with combining our interests and differing passions for music. 

The feedback we received from Miss led us to picking a song from Linkin Park and Jay Z's EP Collision Course. After looking at a few of these choices including Big Pimpin/Papercut we came to the conclusion that it would be hard for us to lip synch Jay Z's parts and also to fit in with an interesting narrative that relates to the genre. His verse would feel tacked on and would ruin the flow. As a result of this we went with the original Papercut song by Linkin Park. 

Song Choice Conflicts B: This Means War - Avenged Sevenfold (Anthony's Choice)

I would like to go with the song, 'This Means War' by Avenged Sevenfold. It is from their new album, 'Hail to the King'. This album is heavily riff based as demonstrated by the awesome riff in this song.

The song is about how there is nothing left in his life and how he has turned to drinking. He talks about how no one will care when he's gone. This song has very obvious dark themes which is well suited to the genre of the band. (heavy metal/hard rock).



Narrative/Performance
The video would have brief narrative before the music starts playing, it would open up with a medium shot of the lead guitarist of the band standing at a counter having a drink. He would turn to his friend saying, 'When are we getting the band together' It would then cut to the opening guitar riff being played by him on stage in front of an almost empty crowd. More performance parts would be for the solo and riff being played on top of a hill. For the narrative it would be the guitarist, going through the mundane events of every day life being fed up until at the end it cuts back to them performing in front of a full crowd to show they've made it.

Song Choice Conflicts A: Forbidden Fruit - J Cole (Ste's Choice)

My preferred song choice for our group is the 2013 single by J Cole 'Forbidden Fruit (feat. Kendrick Lamar)' from his sophomore album Born Sinner.

The track itself...

This is a hip-hop track produced by J Cole himself, and the production is based around a looped sample from 'Mystic Brew' by Ronnie Foster. It has a laidback old feel, and the lyrics are based around Cole's encounter with his girlfriend and fits in with the narrative of the album of his skipping church to be with her. He raps about other subjects and uses the Adam and Eve metaphor consistently throughout.
It features other American rapper Kendrick Lamar but instead of contributing a verse he sings the song's hook and bridge later in the song. The last minute or so of the track features dialogue related to the narrative of the album which of course would be edited out so the song fits with our idea, with the explicit language being removed too.

The narrative idea...

My idea for the video would start with the skit that precedes this track with short visual accompaniment of the members of the church wondering where our protagonist 'Jermaine' is, and why he isn't there. It would be a gospel church but doesn't necessarily need black people there, as long as the costumes and dancing is still there to make it recognisable.

As the main song begins it would start with a birds eye shot of the protagonist lying in grass in the middle of nowhere, as if he just woke up there recently. His clothes would look ragged and he would seem very shaken in both how he moves his face and looks. This is quite similar to the video for 'The Scientist' by Coldplay.

The main narrative of the video would follow the protagonist navigating or at least trying to find a way home, with various serious and humourous obstacles. Kendrick Lamar's hook would feature another character acting as the physical conscious of Jermaine, only featuring at the hook and bridge. The only example I have thought of would be the emergence of a girl from water in a bikini, with possible intertextuality to the famous entrance of Honey Ryder in classic Bond film Dr. No, as the supporting character representing Jermaine's thoughts speaks Kendrick's soft hook into Jermaine's ear from behind him.

The performance idea...

A basic idea for the performance scenes would be in a dark empty hall (Knotty Ash Community Centre?) with the band playing along with the instrumental and the singer rapping the main verses and all of J Cole's parts. Kendrick's hook will be confined to the narrative scenes, maybe just the band shown playing on his part.

Questionnaire

Please take the time to fill in this questionnaire (below) to help us with our research for our coursework, thank you.