Letter to Astral Works

Big Beat

The Chemical Brothers are the UK-based Grammy Award winning electronic music and rave duo of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and The Crystal Method, as well as other lesser-known acts they were pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre, and are known for high-quality live sets.

Their first album 'Exit Planet Dust' was released in 1995, along with a name change of the band - from The Dust Brothers, too the Chemical Brothers. They have 6 albums overall, with a new one coming out next year called 'Further'

This is a list of the current albums from 'The Chemical Brothers'.

- Exit Planet Dust

- Dig Your Own Hole

- Surrender

- Come with Us

- Push the Button

- We Are the Night

- Further

Big Beat

WE have shifted our genre from 'Drum n Bass' to 'Big Beat'. Some artists in this genre are Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Faithless.

His most famous songs are Rockafeller Skank, Praise You, Brimful of Asha - Cornershop (Norman Cook remix), Weapon of Choice, Gangster Trippin’, I See You Baby - Groove Armada (Fatboy Slim remix), Wonderful Night, Right Here, Right Now. (http://www.astralwerks.com/fbs/)

Last Lesson

Last lesson we made the decision to change our song. We are keeping the same genre which means we don't have to redo everything. We are currently focussed on doing 'Galvanize' by Chemical Brothers. We began annotating the lyrics and thinking of ideas for a storyboard. We planned to go to various locations to research how well they could be used. We are going to;

Portsmouth - Spinnaker Tower

Wittering - Beach

Bracklesham Bay

and we think that London will be a good location.

We decided to do this as we became aware that some events of our genre often take place on the beach

Our Final Cut Lesson

This is 'Final Cut' which we will use when we make our music video. It has many useful tools; such as being able to use a green screen, having 2 videos playing simultaneously so you can cut between shots without losing continuity.

Photo/Shop Analysis

Photoshopped Image - I am pleased with the background I used. I found it by accident when learning different tools and decided it suits my genre well. I used a Parent Advisory sticker as many of the themes in "Drum n Bass" are not suitable for younger audiences. The Font I used works well with the technical element of "Drum n Bass".

Original Image 1 - This photo is a midshot eye level shot of Jacob to give the audience a personal effect that makes them feel as though they are standing with him. The pose Jacob is in connotes a pop artist; however, the clothing, being black, with the green bush shows more elements of "Drum n Bass".

Original Image 2 -We used the white background in this image so it would be easier to crop us out and put us on a different background in Photoshop. We used a long shot to show all 3 of us and the keyboard and mixer. The clothing suits the "Drum n Bass" genre as it is dark. Covering our eyes with our long hair shows a

Alternative Video Analysis

Cee Lo Green

• Shows a narrative in segments of the characters life.
• Set in four main locations.
• Lip sync throughout, even from people playing the character, as well as the singer.
• Good use of colours and effects. Helps the audience see who the main character is whenever the scenery changes.
• Clear theme throughout the video of a man’s story and love life.
• Lots of mid-shots to show action as well as lip syncing.
• Eye contact with audience apart from when he is wearing sunglasses.
• The singer is dressed to how the character should dress instead of seperate from the video.

JANELLE MONAE - COLD WAR

· Close-up to clearly show lip syncing and facial expressions to help convey strong emotions.

· Black background to emphasise the singer.

· Very strong eye contact with minimal blinking. Moves head but still retains eye contact.

· Screen fades in and out focus in time with the music.

· She fluffs a line, shakes her head with frustration, and a single tear rolls down. The lip-sync illusion is shattered.

· Camera is held freehand throughout.

Song Details

We have chosen Sub Focus - Spash ft. Coco as our song. It is in the Drum & Bass genre. We chose this song because it fitted the criteria. None of us had heard this song before so we weren't subject to bias and could approach it professionally. We also chose this as it had lyrics, unlike a lot of Drum & Bass, and had a female singer.

Roles

Todd - I will be in charge of filming the music video and bringing the story board to life as much as possible, gathering props we may need and helping in editing. I wll also help create the album cover and magazine advert in photoshop.

James - James will also help film and make sure the frame on camera resembles the storyboard as closely as posible. He will be in charge of editing and will help gather props. He will be in charge of bringing Jacob's designs to phtoshop.

Jacob - Jacob will also help film and edit. He will be in charge of designing our album cover and magazine advert. He will be in charge of Storyboarding and framing shots. He will be in charge of where in the location that he wants us to film.

Lauren - Lauren doesn't do media; however she has agreed to be in our music video and perform.

Initial Ideas

Our initial thoughts were to have a female artist be our performer to a Drum & Bass song. Our first tsong that we chose to do was Sub Focus - Splash ft. Coco with Lauren Goldsack as the singer. An initial location we had in mind was Boxhill with the scenery behind and changes in scenery without having to travel too far. We think that some lyrics will fit in with Boxhill's scenery and atmosphere; the chorus would be a good section to keep coming back to here.

One prop idea was to have a giant Chubba Chups lolly, to be used to show abstract or a prop during performance. To gather our ideas we had a group discussion just suggesting ideas and see how the group responded. We chose the Drum & Bass genre purely because we thought that not many other people would choose the same and we wanted to challenge ourselves and take ourselves out of our comfort zones. When Designing our CD cover, we decided to advertise an offer of being able to download something for free if you buy it, to help encourage people to buy a CD as most would rather download it.