Initial plans still might need some adjustments

1. Initial Plans
Andrew Downes

2. Idea Generation
• Select a song/track that you like [or don’t like!]
• Generate three ideas for music videos employing styles, techniques
and conventions that we have looked at in previous sessions. Explore
how you could interpret the song differently using different methods
• You can add any extra info you think is relevant, images, mind maps,
etc
• For quick mind maps you could use bubbl.us to generate these

3. Remember…

4. Idea one
• I was looking at the Iron Maiden speed of light official music video and it gave me the idea
of some one playing video games and then the characters came to life to put a twist on the
video which to me would seem cool or to go closer to the video actually go into a
videogame world using different shots such as long shots and medium shots however not
to close as well you just wouldn’t get the kind of feeling I would be after which is a sort of
3rd person games or better yet old 2d games with pixel art. As shown it is kind of doing
parodies and also using a sense fantasy and surrealism and there is no shortage for
inspiration when it comes down to games and pixels. As for the main character I am going
to have to change him completely maybe just have him be a normal person or have
someone wearing a mask as seems as I can’t do my whole project as an animation as it
would take ages so most of it would have to be filmed in different areas however I might
just at the end or maybe at the beginning have the main character dragged into a game and
then escape and drag some of the other characters from the video games through with him
and I think I might set it out like how the game no time to explain works you go from area
to area quickly and thus being able to parody some games whilst having a full sense of
being emerged in a surrealistic world made with pixels and also the fact at how we will
have to make animations for the background and also make some characters for each area
which will still take a long time however it could be shortened by just acting as some of the
characters in the background instead of animating them I could also instead of doing an
animation for the background I could make it so the background alternates between the
two and then I could give it a ratio like 65% acting and the rest being animation which
would then give it a feeling of almost being real as it is in the world.

5. Idea two
• Speed of light Iron maiden could go a long with a superhero sort of setting either
being set around dash or maybe superman as both can move so fast that they
can turn back time they both kind of fight crime except dash is usually just
running to try and beat someone in a test of speed whether it be one of his
clones from a different universe or a sort of machine terminator kind of speed
machine because the songs lyrics constantly revolves around speed and then
there is also the fact at how the song revolves around space and the universe
things such as black holes and the universe and other singularities such as black
holes so as far as the whole song is concerned it would be best to use a sort of
superman figure using lots of mid shots and some long shots and maybe some
short shots at the beginning and end to make sure all of the superman
checkboxes are ticked such as clenched fist while flying and also laser eyes being
some of such checkboxes so yet again it could be a parody but it would be more
like a honorific kind of video and also it has to be surreal as there are
superheroes or it could be about someone who is trying to become a superhero
but yeah that is good enough for story but now the setting could be in a field and
then gradually move towards the city which you can only get closer to if you are
becoming a hero. Then maybe add some fight scenes in between that main story
arch however he fails to get in because he does more harm than he does good
and then at the end show that the cycle is repeated just with a different person
but don’t show the whole story just show him getting the idea.

6. Idea three
• It could be set in space in a space shuttle as the whole song is supposed to
be based around space travel, time travel, black holes and separate
universes. It would also be good to kind of have a kind of Alien movie story
line or Alien vs predator which would kind of link with the tempo and the
lyrics themselves. So it would be great to have something either you are
running away from or having either alien or predator chasing the other.
There would be lots of long shots such as one of space, stars, planets and
maybe some kind of colony and then there is another one for the space
station itself but it is closer than the first one and then there will be other
ones inside the space station with maybe some long running scenes with all
the chasing and running away also there could be some mid shots to some
of the tricks such as jumping off of walls and the sort and then have some
close ups at the end and the beginning of the confrontation and whoever
wins at the end there is a kind of stare off between the two and also the
eventual win of one or the other will be made of mostly mid shots and close
ups. Yet again it is a surreal sort of setting and yet again this will be more of a
parody between alien vs predator and scooby doo.

7. Mind map of ideas
[summary of ideas]

8. Summary
• 5 strengths of your ideas you could use
• I am planning on using lots of things from my first idea which is about
videogames and getting sucked into them so I might take the story line and if I do
that I will take the body shot list as well for that idea and there is so much I could
do with the videogames aspect and I have decided to make it a pixelated sort of
video, however though there were some good plot points in the other two so
maybe parts of the space one might appear in a game form but instead of using
all the shots I proposed for it I might just use a long shot with alien and predator
fighting in the background whilst the main character is running in the foreground
or have both of them chasing the main character.
• 5 weaknesses of you ideas
• Most of this idea uses fighting as a central part of the story line to show how
violent things can get or I could just be tame and use jump scares and things of
that sort rather than gruesome murders and killing but the other central part of
the story line is that somehow the main character gets dragged through the tv
and into the game and some how I either have to animate it or do some clever
filming to dodge around the idea, the other weakness is that I am ill whilst doing
this so the production animation part will be difficult to do as I am at home and
also there is the fact at how I can’t get much good feedback at home from
people who know what they are talking about at least.

9. Final idea – artist/title/info
• Name of track / name of artist
• Speed of Light/ Iron Maiden
• Brief biographical background
• Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal band made in London in 1975, the bands
discography has grown to thirty-eight albums, including sixteen studio albums, twelve live
albums, four extended play records and seven compilations. This is made more impressive
with the fact at how they got very little radio or tv time so there was practically no way to
get their name out apart from the people who had already listened to them and them
telling their friends and so on and yet they are still considered one of the best heavy metal
bands in the world and the other main piece of information is there mascot Eddie which is
pretty much just a zombie just shown in different ways for different albums. As for the
actual band there are 6 members being Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Bruce
Dickinson, Nicko McBrain and Janick Gers.
• Links to other artists
• None
• Genre info
• Heavy Metal is a form of rock music that developed in the 1960’s to the 1970’s it can easily
be noticed as it has longer guitar solos very distorted guitars, empathetic beats and over all
loudness and is commonly linked with aggression it all began in the UK with bands such as
Iron Maiden and Def Leppard being some of the first bands for this sort of music.

10. Final idea – track summary
• Summary/analysis of track [consider meaning, content, duration,
pace and style of the song]
• Iron Maidens song called speed of light is great the actual meaning of
the song is a bout space and how we could all be safe there I guess
they must have been joking as they have used such things as black
holes and different universes in the song but just from the lyrics it
just sounds like it should be a sort of police drama intro as they have
speed and light and some of the lyrics say no human can save us now
I believe, there are lots of distorted guitars some drums but mainly
guitar with some different cord progressions and the song in general
is up beat but the lyrics could be a bit better and when it comes
down to picking up on the beat it is a little bit difficult and it is quite a
fast song even though it lasts around about 5 minutes and if you only
listen to the music as I said it just has an uplifting tone to it.

11. Final idea – your idea
• Your creative concept/video synopsis [describe your interpretation, use of
imagery or narrative, genre conventions, etc]
• We start off with a mid body shot so it shows the face an arm and part of the
body also it will show a monitor or tv and in the hand there will be a
controller and maybe in the reflection of the tv or monitor the front of the
face will be seen. Then something goes wrong sparks fly and the monitor
breaks and the main character is slowly turned into pixels and dragged into
the broken monitor he gets transported from game to game either turning
into the main character of each game or running through the game with the
main character in the background or I could have a mixture of the two and
eventually he will escape the monitor after finding a few monitors which he
couldn’t escape through but when he does he is followed by all the main
characters or some with some enemies close behind. The video ends off with
a fight between the main characters and the enemies and the main
characters win and go back to their world. However they leave the bodies of
the enemies in your world and the actual main character of the music video
is left to clean up after the epic battle.

12. Final idea – techniques and styles
• Video techniques/style/conventions to be used [include how you intend to
implement these]
• Animation is one thing I am going to need for the breaking of the monitor and
the other worlds that are to be found inside of the game world. Also I am
planning on doing a circular vortex sort of thing to show the main character
travelling to different areas and time periods for those parts there is going to be
a mixture of long full body shots, mid body shots and close ups. As for when
they are walking through in the different world I was planning on using a mixture
of long shot and mid shots as close ups would only work if I was going to work on
how the main character of the game looked and what he was doing in the
background, it should inspirational at the very least I don’t think I could call some
games uplifting but I will try to make it fit in with the music in more ways than
just trying to use the same tone that they used for the song for most of this
project I will have to use a green screen as to show all the animation I am hoping
I will be able to do, which is a lot with the vortex different worlds other
characters and then at the very end I will have to find a way making it look as if
all the characters I had created had battle in my bedroom which will be
incredibly difficult instead of doing that though I might just have a few of the
enemies and a few of the heroes and then at the end cleaning up after the battle
will probably be a little bit more difficult than it sounds.

13. Summary
• 5 strengths of your ideas you could use
• It is really what I wanted to do for this project which was to animate something which
actually looked pretty good.
• The plot seems fairly solid to me at least but to someone else it could just be some
ramblings of an idiot.
• Also I have created somewhat of a shot list in my head for the actual production which kind
of puts me in a good place for production.
• It has a mixture of real life and fantasy to entice people and keep their interest.
• I have a general idea of what kind of games I am going to take characters from so that is a
good start for the production
• 5 weaknesses of you ideas
• It will take a long time to animate all the things I want to animate.
• Quite a few bits and pieces will be to do with some form of fighting as it is essential to the
plot there won’t be any blood or anything though.
• I am going to have to draw myself in pixel and other game styles and also the main
characters of those games.
• I have had no feedback to see whether or not this whole idea will actually be able to stand
as my project.

14. Potential research targets
• First of all I will need to learn how to use green screen as I have no
clue I have been close to them before however I have never actually
use one. Next would be drawing in different styles to fit in with the
music video and the video games I am planning on either taking their
characters or taking some of the plans for those characters. I also
want to be able to draw some quite intricate drawings as well for the
monitor/ screen breaking and maybe some different characters or I
will just turn them all into pixels. Also I might need to research for
some different filming techniques as I don’t really like filming things I
prefer to take pictures of what is happening, I might be able to make
a stop motion sort of video where I show movement with different
pictures to make it look even more like the main character is inside of
the game.