Rough early storyboard

Here is the roughest ever outline of a couple of moments in my potential video.

I made this on photoshop it is a quick look at how my ideas would kinda look. It is inspired by monty python cartoony bits.

My idea so far is a mix of stop motion and real life, with the use of models and other objects to create a minature world. Scenes will mix between linking in with the lyrics directly and not. How ever the feel and mood will represent the song throughout.

Here is an email I sent to the band

Here is the Decemberists' Artist

She has a nice style but alot more refined and neat than mine, I think designer's gauche and some patience could lead to me producing something in her style. Or i could go totally away from it. The art is generally light, restrained, with use of flowers and boarders being common.
http://www.carsonellis.com/portfolio.html

The band's songs range from upbeat pop to instrumentally lush ballads, and often employ instruments like the accordion, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer organ, and upright bass. In its lyrics, the band eschews the angst and introspection common to modern rock, instead favoring a storytelling approach, as evidenced in songs such as "My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist" from the 5 Songs EP and "The Mariner's Revenge Song" on Picaresque. The band's songs convey tales ranging from whimsical ("The Sporting Life") to epic ("The Tain") to dark ("Odalisque"), and often invoke historical events and themes from around the world. Early in their career, The Decemberists' musical and lyrical aesthetics frequently prompted critics to compare them to Neutral Milk Hotel.

[edit] Influences
On their website, the band claims that their official drink is Orangina, and that they "adore" the bands Norfolk & Western, The Places, The Long Winters, Death Cab for Cutie, Dokken, Tracker, The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, Electrelane, Camera Obscura, Clearlake, Tom Heinl, The Thermals, Swords and Earlimart. The band's official biography, keeping up their reputation for grandiloquence, describes how they met in a Turkish bath. A footnote following the biography claims, "The Decemberists travel exclusively by Dr. Herring's Brand Dirigible Balloons." Colin Meloy has listed Anne Briggs, Nic Jones, and Shirley Collins – who led the 1960s British folk revival – as major influences on The Hazards of Love. Meloy has also confessed a "slavish love" for Morrissey, one of his principal influences.[3] The band has also cited their liking for Siouxsie and the Banshees,[4] and the pop tunes of R.E.M. and XTC. The band also draws inspiration from communism, occasionally opening shows with the Soviet national anthem.

When The War Came
This song is a portrayal of the 900 day Siege of Leningrad during WWII. During this siege, the German army surrounded the city entirely, preventing anything from going in or out. As a result, many died of starvation, and the final death-toll is estimated to be over one million dead. The song also has a political undertone to it; it is stated that despite the fact that people put their faith in the government which swore to protect them, they ended up being left unprepared and unequipped to fight the Germans off.[3] The song references Nikolai Vavilov, a Russian botanist who was murdered by Stalin, in the lyrics.

"The last great book I read was Hunger by Elise Blackwell. It’s about the siege of Leningrad in World War II, and there was a botanical institute. During the siege, which lasted a long time, the entire population was starving, but all of the botanists in the institute swore themselves to protect the catalog of seeds and plants and things, from not only a starving population, but also from themselves. It’s pretty amazing. I actually ended up writing "When the War Came", a song on the new record, about that." - Colin Meloy[3]


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This is a bit about the band and even the song from wikipedia. I didn't realise it was about Leningrad.

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The implications on my work that can be drawn from this infomation are that:

-The song is about leningrad and the protection of shrubs from the starving.
-The portayal of a physical form of grandiloquence would be totally appropriate.

Here is me practicing stop motion, I made it in window movie maker. The duration of each picture is 0.125 seconds. It was around 80 pictures to make a realitively jerky 15 seconds of stop animation.

Questionnaire I used facebook to send this to people on my friends list who represent my target audience, they are all teenagers with a keen interest in music.



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In summery I should avoid cliches and the obvious, and also too many shots of the band.