Stop motion inspiration

We came across this video on Youtube, which sparked our initial ideas into the possibility of a stop motion animation. We felt that the irony of using monopoly money to portray the economic and political climate at the time ska was at one of it's peaks of popularity in such a way was just too fun and good an idea to pass up!

Still photos are taken of the monopoly pieces/money, and are then moved very gradually differently between each still, with the camera remaining in precisely the same position each time (or the process wouldn't work at all!). These stills are then pieced together to form a motion animation where it appears as though the pieces are moving by themselves. The higher the frame rate in stop motions (the more frames on screen per second), the more smooth the animation will appear. This however is not applicable to our own idea as we are moving each note piece by piece rather than over distance, so it would not be possible to make it appear smooth in such a way as this video does.

Having each watched this video we felt that the inclusion of a short stop motion feature could be a brilliant addition to our video, adding a different, quirky element! We then proceeded to experiment with our own monopoly set (Norwich edition for extra detail!), from which our pictures with an explanation are on the previous post.

Monopoly stop motion idea

In our video we are going to include a short stop motion animation featuring monopoly money. We are going to use a continuous film method by taking second-long shots of individual notes being placed on top of one another one by one, and then transfer these onto the editing software to play at one after the other at high speed to make it appear as though they are appearing quickly on their own, one by one. The monopoly notes will be placed such that they will then spell out the words 'money' and 'grabber'. The stop motion effect will make the letters appear at a fast rate, one at a time, to then be coupled with the chorus of the song where the lyrics are 'moneygrabber' so that the word is being spelt out as the lead singer is pronouncing the word. We felt this would be quite a cool and interesting idea to make our video more quirky and appealing, whilst fitting in with the fast-paced mood of the track itself, and connoting the speedy lifestyles of ska youth, linking well with the genre.

These are a few shots of our practice run in one of our media lessons, where we experimented with the idea of stop motion by playing around with various arrangements of the money to see how to best form the letters. We captured the footage onto tape and will possibly use the animation in our final video.

Early Storyboards

These are the early storyboards i have created to show our ideas of some of the main shots that will feature in our video. Due to the fact that we a planning to make the video predominantly concept-based, we do not yet at this stage know the exact orders in which we want the shots to feature, so the shots on these storyboards are in no particular order. We plan to feature them all in a fast-edited montage style, in an order that fits the pace of the track, and fits the lyrics at that particular time.

We plan to feature a variety of performance shots, including close-ups of our actors in role as the band. The first page of storyboards shows a selection of ideas we intend to include.

As well as the performance, we will shoot a stop motion piece of footage consisting of monopoly money that note by note spells out the title of the song, moneygrabber! We will drop the monopoly money onto an umbrella being held by one of our actors as an ironic metaphor to present how money to the youth of the ska genre is scarce, yet they don't care, implying it might as well be as readily-available as rain.

We will also feature signifying shots of the ska genre with a varied array of close-ups, tilt shots and low angles of shops that would be of great appeal and relevance to these particular youth, such as Norwich's 'Soundclash' music store.

A continuous cutting mix of low angle shots of the actors, paired with point-of-view shots of them walking through the streets of Norwich will be fitting of the urban scene with which ska youth are so familiar, whilst giving the impression that they are walking by showing the footage from their perspective.

Moneygrabber - The Skanx: lyrics

Intro
1,2,3,4
numerous huh’s
Oh yeah
Just a money grabber
Come on (x4)
Hey!
Yeah she’s a money grabber out for what she can get
Oh yeah
She’s a money grabber-er-er out for what she can get
Oh yeah
You betta’ watch out or she will get …..
Yeah – e – yeah!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey!
Just a money grabber (x2)
Yeah!
She will steal you money and your pride too yeah-e-yeah (x2)
O-yeah you betta’ watch out because she is bad news yeah-e-yeah
You betta’ watch o-o-out because she is bad news yeah!
Many huh’s
Come again, hey (x2)
More huh’s
Instrumental (2.07-2.34)
Huh just a money grabber (x8)
Hey she is poison no no no good for you yeah-e-yeah
She is poison no good no no good for you oh-yeah
She will catch you in her web then you’ll never get loose, yeah-e-yeah
She will catch you in her web and then you’ll never get loose
Huh just a money money grabber, huh huh
Just a money grabber (x2)
Hey hey yeah yarr
Just a money grabber
Yeah yeah yarr
She’s a money grabber
Hey hey
Just another money grabber
Just a money grabber
Hey hey yeah yurr
Hey just a money grabber
Just a money grabber
Hey she’s a money grabber
Just a money grabber ( x10) Together
Just a money grabber (x3)
Money grabber get out of my face, yeah!

Concepts

Due to the fact that our song brings about large conotations of possible concepts as opposed to a good narrative idea, we as a group have decided for or video to go with a more concept-based approach as opposed to a narrative structure.

Our video is going to consist of both concept ideas and shots, as well as performance shots of the actors appearing as the band.

Due to our song being entitled 'MoneyGrabber', it was obvious to us that the main concept that the video would be focused around would be money, featuring a 'moneygrabbing' female character who represents the female lead singer of the band. This factor of our video could be referenced to the completely different yet relevant genre of rap, with Kanye West's song 'Gold Digger', where his main theme is also money-grabbing women!

The main topics of our video are going to be:

- Youth Culture - We will focus on how youth of the ska genre dress, what music they listen to and what their interests are.

- Money - A lot of our footage will be based around this, mainly with the use of monopoly money to present how the youth of the genre have an arrogant approach to the economic situation and are in their own almost 'dream world'

- Recession - A variety of our shots will feature recession-hit businesses, that have been struggling, to highlight the relevance to the genre, as this also links back to when the ska genre was big, when Margaret Thatcher was in power, linked with the poor economic situation this came with.

- Irony - By the use of monopoly money as opposed to real money, this shows how the characters are almost not taking the situation seriously, but are instead all about having fun. Shots of recession-hit businesses linked with the upbeat soundtrack and happy mood of the song is very ironic.

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