In a final conclusion, the production of the final music video has been a long and exhilarating experience that has acted as a catalyst for me to learn new media based skills. In terms of planning, researching and producing a media project, I have found that the methods in doing so have been extremely entertaining and significant in developing a knowledge for media and the music video industry.
By judging my own performance, I can honestly say that my work ethic has in parts been rather dire. However, throughout the project, I can safely say my input has been highly valued by the group. I am not the best editor but most of the music video has been resurrected from both my ideas and initiative. I have enjoyed working as a group and feel that each member of our group has different strengths. As I said, my strength is initiative and ideas as opposed to other members of my group who enjoy other things such as the editing sector or filming and angles.
I feel that the whole project has been an experience that has allowed my media knowledge to grow and I can now appreciate music videos much more, whereas before, I felt that the music side of things was the only significant thing associated to a song.
Overall, I believe that our music video looks professional and the narrative nature of the music video allows the audience to enjoy and enhance the story that we have created. We tried to mix in the three types of music video and this has produced a conclusion which looks extremely good and can proudly say that our group has put in the time and effort to produce a piece of media gold.
Friday, 16 December 2011
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Monday, 12 December 2011
Evaluation Task 4
Media technologies definitely played a major part in the production of our music video project. Throughout the creation of the product, we used many different technologies to initiate our project, it would seem. There were of course, benefits and disadvantages for each one of the technologies that we used. Evidently, we visually enjoyed using different types of technologies in our work and found some to be better than others, it would seem.
Blogger-
Blogger, is a decent online networking site that allows users to upload a blog in the form of a diary, information or in this case, A2 Media Coursework. I found the program easy to use and found that to update flurries of Multimedia aspects, it was easy and efficient to say the least. To use it thoroughly for our media coursework, I found it a helpful source which allowed the user to upload bodies of text along with images and multimedia snippets that associated it. As a student, I think that 'Blogger' is a highly recommendable program that could potentially be used for both Coursework and Personal use. It has helped me develop my skills in both grammar and awareness of layout and structure of writing, images and videos. It has been a program which acts as a catalyst to show my written responses to the production, planning and evaluation of our media video project, essentially. There are some notable setbacks that come with Blogger, including the inserting nature of photos, videos and other multimedia clips. In example, the uploading of the final video had to be exported from 'YouTube', rather than straight from 'Final Cut'.
Prezzi-
Prezzi, for me, was not my favourite program to use to show work. As a presentation based online program, I felt it was rather unattractive and sometimes found it exceedingly hard to use. However, I felt it had some unique qualities that other programs didn't express, respectively. I felt that the program itself had associated itself with a good concept but didn't grasp the whole theme of 'cheesy' fonts and unattractive layout. I feel that the program itself hasn't appealed to me due to the fact that other programs attract me more. In personal preference, I think I didn't appreciate the program as much as something like 'Blogger' due to the fact that I prefer to write tonnes of text as opposed to presenting the task visually and/or with associated multimedia.
Ipads/Mobile Phones
Whilst planning and producing our music video, using the technology that was available to us was immensely useful in terms of researching and extracting information from the products. Positively, I could find out information using these devices that essentially, was not available to society just 20 years ago. I personally think that Ipads and Mobile Phones are fantastically useful and essential in researching informative text that regard music video and realising conventional tactics to be used in our potential project, it would seem. They generate an availability of usage that I felt has been harnessed and used to extract some information that perhaps, wouldn't have been available elsewhere.
Apple Macs
To use Apple Macs, as a catalyst of uploading text and video has been by far the greatest help in the production of our media project. There are many benefits that regard Apple and their invention, the Mac. The Mac is a source of immense information and usage of programs that allow users to express visuals and generate a media video, in this case. The device itself, is very fast in terms of usage and allows the user to swiftly type text and edit a music video on an associated product. The product itself, calls for high plaudits that really show how good the actual device is. We used it to edit, write and research all things to do with our music video. Personally, for me, the Apple Mac, is one of the greatest inventions of the 21st Century and the calibre behind the product really calls for high recommendation.
Digital Cameras and Editing (Final Cut)
When creating our music video, we had the availability of devices and internal programs to enhance our chance at making a professional looking music video. Essentially, the digital cameras were of a high standard and the appreciation that ultimately surrounded it was shown whilst filming and editing our music video. We felt that there were some features on the digital camera that could be used to our advantage, respectively. In example, the opening and closing of the lens whilst filming captured the camera attempting to focus itself, in the sense that it showed immense initiative. Since this was available to us, we grasped the concept of using a digital camera and used it to capture different shots at different angles and capture decent visuals, to say the least. Once our footage for the music video was captured, we needed to edit the video to show a professional looking video, it has to be said. The editing side of things came thanks to a program called Final Cut, in which the group, as a whole, used to create effects and take advantages of the different aspects that came with the program, it seems. The program itself was highly professional and this meant we had to respect the fact that we could potentially make a professional looking music video thanks to Final Cut, seemingly. Whilst editing our video, we faced some negativities, such as the out of sync factor that happened countless times when trying to line up footage with our song choice. Overall, the filming and editing process was good in terms of realising that we were using professional programs to understand the potential that we could create, essentially.
Photoshop
We used Adobe Photoshop for a lot of positive work. We created the Digipak and other user documentation to professionalise our work and this shows both initiative and development of skills. We manipulated photos to look as positive and 'fake' as possible. This always was a positive though, in my opinion. Photoshop definitely allowed our group to experiment with different tactics to show certain visuals and other professional-esque tactics, it would appear.
Overall, the use of media technologies has helped our group massively in terms of creating, researching, producing and planning of a music video from scratch. The gathering of research has shown initiative and the fact we have evaluated our own performance has shown how as a group we have encountered some difficulties with the products that are available to us and we enhanced these products with great force.
Blogger-
Blogger, is a decent online networking site that allows users to upload a blog in the form of a diary, information or in this case, A2 Media Coursework. I found the program easy to use and found that to update flurries of Multimedia aspects, it was easy and efficient to say the least. To use it thoroughly for our media coursework, I found it a helpful source which allowed the user to upload bodies of text along with images and multimedia snippets that associated it. As a student, I think that 'Blogger' is a highly recommendable program that could potentially be used for both Coursework and Personal use. It has helped me develop my skills in both grammar and awareness of layout and structure of writing, images and videos. It has been a program which acts as a catalyst to show my written responses to the production, planning and evaluation of our media video project, essentially. There are some notable setbacks that come with Blogger, including the inserting nature of photos, videos and other multimedia clips. In example, the uploading of the final video had to be exported from 'YouTube', rather than straight from 'Final Cut'.
Prezzi-
Prezzi, for me, was not my favourite program to use to show work. As a presentation based online program, I felt it was rather unattractive and sometimes found it exceedingly hard to use. However, I felt it had some unique qualities that other programs didn't express, respectively. I felt that the program itself had associated itself with a good concept but didn't grasp the whole theme of 'cheesy' fonts and unattractive layout. I feel that the program itself hasn't appealed to me due to the fact that other programs attract me more. In personal preference, I think I didn't appreciate the program as much as something like 'Blogger' due to the fact that I prefer to write tonnes of text as opposed to presenting the task visually and/or with associated multimedia.
Ipads/Mobile Phones
Whilst planning and producing our music video, using the technology that was available to us was immensely useful in terms of researching and extracting information from the products. Positively, I could find out information using these devices that essentially, was not available to society just 20 years ago. I personally think that Ipads and Mobile Phones are fantastically useful and essential in researching informative text that regard music video and realising conventional tactics to be used in our potential project, it would seem. They generate an availability of usage that I felt has been harnessed and used to extract some information that perhaps, wouldn't have been available elsewhere.
Apple Macs
To use Apple Macs, as a catalyst of uploading text and video has been by far the greatest help in the production of our media project. There are many benefits that regard Apple and their invention, the Mac. The Mac is a source of immense information and usage of programs that allow users to express visuals and generate a media video, in this case. The device itself, is very fast in terms of usage and allows the user to swiftly type text and edit a music video on an associated product. The product itself, calls for high plaudits that really show how good the actual device is. We used it to edit, write and research all things to do with our music video. Personally, for me, the Apple Mac, is one of the greatest inventions of the 21st Century and the calibre behind the product really calls for high recommendation.
Digital Cameras and Editing (Final Cut)
When creating our music video, we had the availability of devices and internal programs to enhance our chance at making a professional looking music video. Essentially, the digital cameras were of a high standard and the appreciation that ultimately surrounded it was shown whilst filming and editing our music video. We felt that there were some features on the digital camera that could be used to our advantage, respectively. In example, the opening and closing of the lens whilst filming captured the camera attempting to focus itself, in the sense that it showed immense initiative. Since this was available to us, we grasped the concept of using a digital camera and used it to capture different shots at different angles and capture decent visuals, to say the least. Once our footage for the music video was captured, we needed to edit the video to show a professional looking video, it has to be said. The editing side of things came thanks to a program called Final Cut, in which the group, as a whole, used to create effects and take advantages of the different aspects that came with the program, it seems. The program itself was highly professional and this meant we had to respect the fact that we could potentially make a professional looking music video thanks to Final Cut, seemingly. Whilst editing our video, we faced some negativities, such as the out of sync factor that happened countless times when trying to line up footage with our song choice. Overall, the filming and editing process was good in terms of realising that we were using professional programs to understand the potential that we could create, essentially.
Photoshop
We used Adobe Photoshop for a lot of positive work. We created the Digipak and other user documentation to professionalise our work and this shows both initiative and development of skills. We manipulated photos to look as positive and 'fake' as possible. This always was a positive though, in my opinion. Photoshop definitely allowed our group to experiment with different tactics to show certain visuals and other professional-esque tactics, it would appear.
Overall, the use of media technologies has helped our group massively in terms of creating, researching, producing and planning of a music video from scratch. The gathering of research has shown initiative and the fact we have evaluated our own performance has shown how as a group we have encountered some difficulties with the products that are available to us and we enhanced these products with great force.
Evaluation Task 3
Feedback was a highly important factor that we took on board and considered when concluding our music project. From both peers and teachers, we gained a flurry of feedback, which was both constructive and helpful. To evaluate our project positively, we had to respect the comments and criticisms. Essentially, there were some comments that respectively we didn't want to hear, but overall, we discovered how a little bit of rearrangement could fix the faults that were potentially in our music video.
The feedback that we were given has primarily changed the way I will work in the future. It has been a titanic eye opener in the respect that I now know what makes a successful media product and how if given a group in the future, I would know how to approach the task with great influence and positivity to ensure that the project has been completed to an efficient standard.
Specifically, we asked a focus group questions based on our music video and associated music products, including a digipak, advert and visualised covers to both promote and highlight our music video project. It was interesting to weigh up the responses we gained from a mixture of A-Level media students, a member of staff and students who are not taking media as a subject. The responses for questions that highlighted whether the product was good or not really showed importance when realising what we could have done better and the aspects of the music project which flowed well.
Overall, the flow of conversation between the focus group was a positive observation as it was quite clear that we created a media project which had a lot to talk about, respectively. By viewing our focus group, it was quite obvious that there were many times in our video that came across as unprofessional. It was important to allow these types of comments to sink into our group. Furthermore, the fact we used the same sequence of flashbacks at least three times in our music video made us actually realise there was potential for more footage that could be installed into our music video.
By evaluating the comments that referred to the editing and production side of things, it was significant that we reviewed our own video and pinpointing changes that could have potentially been made. Initially, we had our final music video without any band shots. With recommendation from peers and teachers, we considered the idea of putting this into our music video, conventionally.
Evaluation Task 2
The layout of the product is always important in terms of looking good and appealing to the audience. House style or a Brand Identity is highly significant whilst trying to promote a product and in this case, a media music video. The product itself would need some kind of marketing tactic when creating a product. The consideration of this sector of work would mean some kind of design work involved.When creating multiple media products, it is important to consider the promoting side of things whilst understanding what the audience would be appealed by.
The concept of lonliness appears throughout the product and this is visualised through our music video, Digipak and other documentation that compliments the project, respectively. We have grasped the whole theme of lonliness and put this across whilst showing our work, visually. Looking through our associated documentation, we can weigh up the fact that the imagery that has been installed into our work is highly similar in the sense that the images all show the concept of lonliness and analytically, this is shown through visuals and images that accompany the product.
The style of the product is highly relevant and it is apparent that this is shown throughout the products documentations. The style is rather Indie and compliments the song choice, accordingly. The whole style relates to the style of the music and we wanted to focus on the imagery, surrealism and concept throughout the creation of the project.
The Digipak design is an important factor of the product. In essence, the design is major USP of the product and would need to be considered when relating to the music and the whole project in general. Our unique Digipak design is highly respectable in terms of the fact that it looks both professional and efficient. We have used the Digipak and other promotion tactics to support the music video we have created. In terms of selling the song, I think our Digipak has ticked all the boxes to show that the music video is highly relevant to the actual music and respects the actual band, 'The Fray'.
We started by making some sketches of possible final designs and imagery for our media documentation to both sell and promote our project. The sketches were important in terms of understanding the creation and creative side of things shown when we finalised our media products to associate the product.
The advertisement side of things will definitely show how our Digipak looks and how it will go to suggest to the audience to purchase our products. Much like any other business/organisation, there is a need for the advertisement sector, to essentially 'sell' the product. I believe that our music video advertisement shows a lot of potential in terms of creating a positive visual for the audience, it would seem.
The elements of the products we have portrayed show a lot of relation to the music video and music genre as a whole. The concepts such as lonliness and a contrast of love often supports music genres such as Indie/Alternative Rock. This is a positive interpretation it would seem and to show this visually will allow the audience to relate to the product and the user documentation that associates the music video, itself.
We have subliminaly added product placement in both our music video and products that associate the media project. The brand we have added is 'Superdry', which in fact is a major brand that teenagers and young people appreciate in this modern era. The fact we have added this in our project shows both intiative and economic skills to reinforce the idea of selling our product and promoting existing products that seem overly professional, seemingly.
Overall, it would seem that we, as a group, have effectively promoted our product in the way we wanted to. By using a combination of both our main product and the associated media texts, we have produced something that looks both visual and professional.
The concept of lonliness appears throughout the product and this is visualised through our music video, Digipak and other documentation that compliments the project, respectively. We have grasped the whole theme of lonliness and put this across whilst showing our work, visually. Looking through our associated documentation, we can weigh up the fact that the imagery that has been installed into our work is highly similar in the sense that the images all show the concept of lonliness and analytically, this is shown through visuals and images that accompany the product.
The style of the product is highly relevant and it is apparent that this is shown throughout the products documentations. The style is rather Indie and compliments the song choice, accordingly. The whole style relates to the style of the music and we wanted to focus on the imagery, surrealism and concept throughout the creation of the project.
The Digipak design is an important factor of the product. In essence, the design is major USP of the product and would need to be considered when relating to the music and the whole project in general. Our unique Digipak design is highly respectable in terms of the fact that it looks both professional and efficient. We have used the Digipak and other promotion tactics to support the music video we have created. In terms of selling the song, I think our Digipak has ticked all the boxes to show that the music video is highly relevant to the actual music and respects the actual band, 'The Fray'.
We started by making some sketches of possible final designs and imagery for our media documentation to both sell and promote our project. The sketches were important in terms of understanding the creation and creative side of things shown when we finalised our media products to associate the product.
The advertisement side of things will definitely show how our Digipak looks and how it will go to suggest to the audience to purchase our products. Much like any other business/organisation, there is a need for the advertisement sector, to essentially 'sell' the product. I believe that our music video advertisement shows a lot of potential in terms of creating a positive visual for the audience, it would seem.
The elements of the products we have portrayed show a lot of relation to the music video and music genre as a whole. The concepts such as lonliness and a contrast of love often supports music genres such as Indie/Alternative Rock. This is a positive interpretation it would seem and to show this visually will allow the audience to relate to the product and the user documentation that associates the music video, itself.
We have subliminaly added product placement in both our music video and products that associate the media project. The brand we have added is 'Superdry', which in fact is a major brand that teenagers and young people appreciate in this modern era. The fact we have added this in our project shows both intiative and economic skills to reinforce the idea of selling our product and promoting existing products that seem overly professional, seemingly.
Overall, it would seem that we, as a group, have effectively promoted our product in the way we wanted to. By using a combination of both our main product and the associated media texts, we have produced something that looks both visual and professional.
Evaluation Task 1
When creating our media project, we tried to acknowledge, challenge and focus on prolific conventions of a real media product. We had to realise that a successful music video and concept art isn't created by luck. In fact, there is a subliminal rule book that should be abided to create a piece of media gold.
The conventions of real music videos gave us a chance to evaluate and pinpoint what makes a decent and recognised media product, in terms of how successful it is or how close it came to be an instant failure. We realised we needed to be original, avoiding things that are portrayed by musical artists, frequently. To engage the audience was always the plan and to this we needed to present a product that was eye catching and significantly interesting throughout. We had to make sure that our piece of film was delivered subtlety with a finale which was sure to hit the audience with a flurry of questions. The Digipak design was approached the same way and to create something easy on the eye was extremely important.
There are a lot of signs and symbols in our music video. This shrouds the audience with some sort of mystery, respectively. It has been submitted that the audience often enjoys some kind of mystery. This has been inserted into our music video with thought and consideration of an original and modernised story. This allows the audience to understand the concept and narrative that associates the music video, it seems. By using a flurry of different camera shots, angles, movement, editing and Special FX, we have constituted a story that applies both conventions and a sense of mystery. Overall, this would allow the audience to understand the story a little better, it would seem.
We have considered the Goodwin theory, respectively. The idea that the lyrics and visuals go hand in hand prove good viewing for the audience. We have enhanced this and furthermore imported it into our music video. We have assisted this theory into our music product and the depressive and subtle nature of the music allows us to create a very indie styled feel to the product.
We approached the design work, the same way we appreoached the piece of film, looking to make something easy on the eye and understandable. We gathered the male lead from our film and tried out several different camera shots that could create this masterpiece, respecitvely.
The conventions of real music videos gave us a chance to evaluate and pinpoint what makes a decent and recognised media product, in terms of how successful it is or how close it came to be an instant failure. We realised we needed to be original, avoiding things that are portrayed by musical artists, frequently. To engage the audience was always the plan and to this we needed to present a product that was eye catching and significantly interesting throughout. We had to make sure that our piece of film was delivered subtlety with a finale which was sure to hit the audience with a flurry of questions. The Digipak design was approached the same way and to create something easy on the eye was extremely important.
There are a lot of signs and symbols in our music video. This shrouds the audience with some sort of mystery, respectively. It has been submitted that the audience often enjoys some kind of mystery. This has been inserted into our music video with thought and consideration of an original and modernised story. This allows the audience to understand the concept and narrative that associates the music video, it seems. By using a flurry of different camera shots, angles, movement, editing and Special FX, we have constituted a story that applies both conventions and a sense of mystery. Overall, this would allow the audience to understand the story a little better, it would seem.
We have considered the Goodwin theory, respectively. The idea that the lyrics and visuals go hand in hand prove good viewing for the audience. We have enhanced this and furthermore imported it into our music video. We have assisted this theory into our music product and the depressive and subtle nature of the music allows us to create a very indie styled feel to the product.
The three notable music video types had to be explored and we needed to pick the right category associated with our song, 'The Fray, You Found Me'. To do this, we had to search for bands similar to 'The Fray' and observe the media products they have produced prior to the birth of our media project, Initially, we had to look at videos that have been branded good by Europe and The Americas. An interesting thought to begin with was to extract some ideas from 'A-HA's' 'Take on Me', which has been titled one of the best music videos of all time.
We looked at this music video for a while and essentially came up with the fact it wouldn't particularly fit with the song choice. Despite this, it was good to realise that a current good music video doesn't have to be reborn and reinvented from a video that could never be replaced. Consequently, we needed to create a project that was modernised and therefore current and new.
We approached the design work, the same way we appreoached the piece of film, looking to make something easy on the eye and understandable. We gathered the male lead from our film and tried out several different camera shots that could create this masterpiece, respecitvely.
We found ourselves using several conventional tactics in order to perfect our music video. We landed on the category of narrative and a story was told throughout. We tried to include different shots and portrayal techniques in order to create a decent and professional looking music video. We tried to include shots that went in time with the music and overall meant that the music video would look pro to say the least. Surrealism played a part in conscripting certain events into our music videos. In example, the relationship between the male and female characters within the music video. There is a clip where we see the couple arguing and snippets of them kissing, engaging the audience into making them wonder why there is a binary opposition, visually on screen.
I feel that this adopted convention has changed the way the audience could see the music video and a way of putting ideas into the audience's head.
In conclusion, I feel out group have generated an evaluation of how we have presented, challeneged and developed conventions that essentially have a music video which would be well received by a modern audience that wish to interact and associate themselves with a well balences and significant portrayal of a music video.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Monday, 5 December 2011
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Friday, 2 December 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Extra emergency filming
Whilst continuing with our editing to day, we realised that we had not got enough shots to cover all of the lyrics that we needed to cover. So, once we had worked out the lines that we needed to film, we found a conveniently place brick wall, and decide to film some close ups of Jack lip syncing the missing lines...
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Editing- October
Today we continued with the same work as our previous session on Tuesday 11th. We have noticed that there we still have big gaps to fill, and some of our footage already needs to be re-filmed. Although, at the moment this is no major drama, if we leave it, the problem will escalate! But today has been successful by continuing to build our skeleton of the video.
Transport in and out of London
To make our music video as good as possible we do not want to be filming in and around our local area so as you can see from our plans we have opted to use Central London. We want to make good use of the cheap travel that we are lucky enough to have to get around the capital. Our oyster cards give us free bus travel which is very helpful for getting us to the station, and we also get half rate travel on the tubes so the day works out relitvely cheaply. In total individual travel costs have only reached around £10 which is very helpful because of the ridiculous prices that we would otherwise have to pay.
We aim to get ourselves to Leicester Square and walk around for the rest of the day filming and get a tube home, a very cheap day for lots of filming...
We aim to get ourselves to Leicester Square and walk around for the rest of the day filming and get a tube home, a very cheap day for lots of filming...
Friday, 7 October 2011
7th October 2011
For our filming session today, we headed out to the local village to get some more lip syncing shots and fillers. Although in past posts I have mentioned that we do not wish to film in the local area, Carshalton Highstreet is an area of outstanding beauty, with it's historic church and beautiful park. We managed to get some vital shots to in order to reveal our twist at the end of the video and also managed to fill some small gaps we had in our lyrics. Hopefully we have finished the bulk of our filming now and we will not have to do much more...
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Filming 4th October 2011
Today we made another trip to London to get some filming done for our music video. The day was very successful getting a lot of footage filmed, and this time, we had our main actor with us! We had a plan for the day (please see below) which I felt we stuck to very well enabling us to get lots of work done, cant wait for the next filming session....
4th October Plan:
11:30 - We now aim to be at Oxford Circus where the busy streets will be perfect in order to emphasise the solidarity of our main character, this will also be another opportunity to take some photos for the Digipak.
4th October Plan:
10:00 - Arrive in London and head to Green Park, where we aim to film a manner of shots, but mainly showing the actor alone in such a big space to show his lonliness. I aim to take some pictures, not only for the but for the group to add.
10:45 - Filming in Embankment and Westminster. This seems to be the best location for us in order to film opening shots of the music video as it gives us the opportunity to film some of our flashbacks.
11:30 - We now aim to be at Oxford Circus where the busy streets will be perfect in order to emphasise the solidarity of our main character, this will also be another opportunity to take some photos for the Digipak.
12:15 - We plan to head straight to Primrose Hill, where again we would be looking capture the emotion of the actor as well as the surroundings that he is in. We then plan to head to Charing Cross in order to finish up our filming for the day.
13:45 - For our last section, we wish to film the introduction locally, which is shown by the first few storyboards; this consists of the two actors arguing and then the accident taking place, it is vital that this is filmed correctly in order to gain maximum effect. If all goes to plan, we could start editing from here but we can film any shots that we have missed or did not account for as and when needed.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Filming 27th September 2011
velled to London to start our filming for our music video. This gave us the idea opportunity to assess our locations and to start to get some filler shots for our video. We also used the time to take photos to include in our Digipak, which we are currently designing. Unfortunately our actors were not available for filming today, so we could not get any of our lip syncing done, but we found the day very useful as it gave us the opportunity to work out how we wanted to film and to finalise our locations.
I have included some pictures below of the day and what we got up to. I will be creating a post like this everytime we film to keep track of what we have done. Whilst we have been filming, Nathan has been experimenting at home on Adobe After Effects to try out different ways of making lyrics appear on screen. I believe that these are very good, and full credit must go to Nathan for his excellent work on these. I have included the pictures below to show you what he has done which will hopefully be implemented into our final video.
I have included some pictures below of the day and what we got up to. I will be creating a post like this everytime we film to keep track of what we have done. Whilst we have been filming, Nathan has been experimenting at home on Adobe After Effects to try out different ways of making lyrics appear on screen. I believe that these are very good, and full credit must go to Nathan for his excellent work on these. I have included the pictures below to show you what he has done which will hopefully be implemented into our final video.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
The Twist and inspiration.
Primarily, the Twist that is portrayed in our music video is a complicated paranormal issue that is addressed with decent visuals. Essentially, we see our main male character under the stress of the loss of his late girlfriend. Depressed, he is telling a story of his struggle facing the loss of a loved one.
We can acknowledge the fact that he is going through a dark and grim time judging by his acting and facial expressions etc. We see him sitting in a graveyard that is in fact the graveyard that his girlfriend is buried in and the twist becomes clear that he has joined her. Without knowing, he has committed suicide due to the sheer depression he has encountered. The end shot shows his grave with his name elevated above it. When the writing shatters it is promoting the fact that his heart was shattered when he lost his girlfriend.
The inspiration has sprung up from film and television. We understood the approach we needed to take to show such a serious and depressing issue. We tried to present it in a subtle way and the visuals we have created has hints and clues to the fact that he is singing it from beyond the grave, respectively.
We can acknowledge the fact that he is going through a dark and grim time judging by his acting and facial expressions etc. We see him sitting in a graveyard that is in fact the graveyard that his girlfriend is buried in and the twist becomes clear that he has joined her. Without knowing, he has committed suicide due to the sheer depression he has encountered. The end shot shows his grave with his name elevated above it. When the writing shatters it is promoting the fact that his heart was shattered when he lost his girlfriend.
The inspiration has sprung up from film and television. We understood the approach we needed to take to show such a serious and depressing issue. We tried to present it in a subtle way and the visuals we have created has hints and clues to the fact that he is singing it from beyond the grave, respectively.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Mise-En-Scene
The Mise-En-Scene is very important in any type of film. To construct a positive piece of film, we would need to study different types of Mise-En-Scene and how we can install it into our potential music video. It's important to analyse different locations, props, costumes, lighting etc. When you have triggered the right choice, the music video would be produced in a positive way.
Our music video would need to be located somewhere crowded due to the song being called 'You Found Me'. We could be ironic and have a less crowded place where two parties meet. This is a possibility and the idea of using two different locations could be important in portraying the idea of 'Finding someone'.
Props and Costume isn't as important as some other music videos would be. The Props that would be needed would be very small, insignificant to say the least, but there would be everyday items featuring in the music video. Costume would be very casual and everyday clothing as the focus would solely be on the acotrs and what they are doing, seemingly.
Our music video would need to be located somewhere crowded due to the song being called 'You Found Me'. We could be ironic and have a less crowded place where two parties meet. This is a possibility and the idea of using two different locations could be important in portraying the idea of 'Finding someone'.
Props and Costume isn't as important as some other music videos would be. The Props that would be needed would be very small, insignificant to say the least, but there would be everyday items featuring in the music video. Costume would be very casual and everyday clothing as the focus would solely be on the acotrs and what they are doing, seemingly.
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Representation of people/groups in video
As we have only two actors in our music video, one male and one female, the representation that we have fairly simple. Because our target audience is likely to be close to those aged 16-25, there are likely to be stereotypes that relate to this which we want to try and avoid especially due to the recent riots, that the press have used to slag the youth of today off even more.
Costume will have a big role to play in our video. We will be looking to dress our actors in a casual way but keeping it respectful. By doing this we aim to get a positive reaction from the audience who may feel that any labels that they have been tagged under will be withdrawn. As relation is a key element that we will also be looking to provoke from the audience, the actors will be of a very similar age to those watching yet old and professional enough to pull off the role successfully.
Our characters will not always be presented in a positive way, but having said this our representation will hopefully fall short of any stereotypes by a long way. As we will be portraying a relationship, we are keen to show that a relationship is never perfect, regardless of whom it involves. By showing the relationship we hope to provoke more emotion/reaction from our audience, this may be feeling sorry for an individual or hating the individual.
In regards to ethnicity, our actors are going to be Caucasian, through no discrimination but simply because of the resources available to us. The majority of our audience are likely to be of a similar ethnic background to our characters, which means it is more than likely that there will be an increase in the relation between our audience and our characters.
Friday, 2 September 2011
Locations
Locations List:
Green Park
Ritz Hotel entrance
London Eye
Oxford Street
Regent Street
London Bridge
Tower Bridge
Trafalgar Square
Big Ben & Houses of Parliament
Embankment
Group Members House
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Monday, 29 August 2011
Shooting Schedule
Shooting Schedule
We will be looking to start filming within the next week or so, and attempt to get the filming finished within a few full days in different locations. During this time, as well as when we are editing the music video, we will be updating our blogs with the progress of filming and detailed reports of what we have done after each day. As our main location is going to be Central London, we may have to spend a day or two making sure we have all the shots we need there as well as perhaps spending another day filming in our other locations.
Luckily, Central London has one of the best transport systems in Europe which means it will be easy to transport from place to place as relative ease and cost. The time of day in which we will film will be varied, and by spending the majority of a day filming, combined with the time of year we are privileged to film in means we can film easily during differing times of the day. There will be a more specific schedule and reports from days of filming when we have commenced filming.
As a lot of the landmarks we would be looking to film are clustered within a few locations, for example Trafalgar Square and The houses of Parliamnet are very close, this will save us time in order to go and film perhaps further afield. It wouldn't be that worthwhile to implement a specific shooting schedule at this moment in time but once we are finally organised it will be much easier to plan and implement the filming we need to create our music video.
Luckily, Central London has one of the best transport systems in Europe which means it will be easy to transport from place to place as relative ease and cost. The time of day in which we will film will be varied, and by spending the majority of a day filming, combined with the time of year we are privileged to film in means we can film easily during differing times of the day. There will be a more specific schedule and reports from days of filming when we have commenced filming.
As a lot of the landmarks we would be looking to film are clustered within a few locations, for example Trafalgar Square and The houses of Parliamnet are very close, this will save us time in order to go and film perhaps further afield. It wouldn't be that worthwhile to implement a specific shooting schedule at this moment in time but once we are finally organised it will be much easier to plan and implement the filming we need to create our music video.
Saturday, 13 August 2011
People involved
List of people involved-
- Nathan Russell- Chief Editor
- Will Pilkington- Cameraman/Researcher/Editor
- Jon Chace- Director and ideas
- Charlie Gilbert- Ideas
- Jason Fox- Media expertise
- Male and Female actors- Portraying the lyrics through visuals.
Props
List of Props: (This list is not exhaustive; we may add or take away)
Car – for opening scene when the main female actor is run over
Costumes (See list of people involved for detailed description)
Cigarettes- to correspond with the line “All alone, smoking his last cigarette”
Alcohol – when the male actor is depressed after the death of his girlfriend
Envelopes – to come through the door rapidly to correspond with the line “You never sent me no letters”
House - to facilitate letters coming through letter box
Clock for time-lapse – to simulate the loneliness of the main character being alone
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Adverts for Digipaks
Examples of Digipaks
Digipaks are unique ways of storing CD's. They often are soft material with a small piece of information held in a booklet on the inside cover. The idea of a digipak is to provide information to the user that is efficient and important in terms of the music and artist.
Example 1- Tired Pony
The CD that was released by the band Tired Pony, entitled- 'The place we ran from' is a good example of a digipak.
This is the front cover of the digipak and on the inside is a leaflet that contains the lyrics to every song on the album. This could prove useful to the user. The added booklet is important in terms of promoting the album seeing as it isn't such a well known band. The unique feel to the physicality of the album is important to say the lest in terms of how special the artist is.
Example 2-Oasis
This is similar to the tired pony album in terms of having additional usage apart from the CD itself. As you can see it expands out and would contain more information than the user can see on first glance. That's the ideal beauty of having a Digipak.
Example 1- Tired Pony
The CD that was released by the band Tired Pony, entitled- 'The place we ran from' is a good example of a digipak.
Example 2-Oasis
Friday, 5 August 2011
Equipment
Resources list: (This list is not exhaustive; we may add or take away)
Camera
Tripod
Steady cam
Dolly
Speakers/Music
Actors
Mac (Editing Software)
Location (see location list)
Copies of story boards and scripts for individual referral
Conventions of Music videos
Conventions Of Music Videos
Short shot length. – There usually aren’t any shots longer than around five seconds within a music video as this keeps it pacey and retains the audience’s interest.
A performance/dancing. – In the majority of music videos there is a performance of some kind, be it the performance of a band or dancers.
Shot types. – Usually there are a lot of close-ups within a music video in order to convey feeling.
Editing. – The editing is usually fast-paced, and although this may depend on the pace of the song, this is used to keep the audience engaged at all times.
Transitions. – A variety of transitions and shot styles are used in virtually all music videos in order to capture the audience’s interest and focus.
Locations. – Music videos usually contain more than one location as this again plays with the audience’s interests and makes the music video more interesting.
Conventions of ‘Indie/Alt Rock’ Music Videos
A narrative. – The majority of music videos within our chosen genre contain some sort of narrative and therefore this is something we will be conforming with.
A performance. – Usually but not always there will be a performance from the artist and this is usually intertwined with the footage of the narrative.
A cameo. – The artist appears in the video but does not take part within the storyline, which is something we will take heed of.
Shot types. – There will usually be a usage of establishing shots whenever a new location is shown, of which there will be a few.
Colour correction. – Usually the colour correction will be altered to ensure that it is in keeping with the tone of the music video.
Appearance. – Whoever appears within the music video will be seen, more often than not, in casual clothing.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Research into industry
How are music videos made?
Firstly, plans for a music video must be detailed and extensive as this would be imperative to making sure that the music video is not only completed, but is as professional as possible. For a band’s performance within a music video, more often than not the music is played live in order to ensure that the band’s performance looks real and authentic. Although this may be dubbed over after, but the producers would usually go to considerable lengths to make sure a performance looks authentic.
In regard to the editing, a lot of footage is filmed and usually it is a vast majority more than is necessary as this allows a final edit to be as versatile as possible.
Which Companies are involved?
There are two main types of company when it comes to the creation of music videos. Firstly there are music video producers who are mainly responsible for not only the filming but the editing of music videos also. As the production of a music video can be a very time and money consuming process, they are really invaluable to the creation. Also separate people such as a director would be appointed on the more popular music videos which is true for the producers of the most expensive music video ever, Satellite Films. Promoters are responsible for the promotion of a music video and the influence of social networking is rather important.
Intertextuality in Music Videos
Intertextuality would be important when studying ideas for our music video. We would need to portray a style that has proved effective on other media texts. When faced with picking a style to go with, we haven't shown a specific style but it is clear what our music video is trying to present. The idea of love and romance installed into our music video is very much like a modern day 'Romeo and Juliet', which is essentially the greatest love tragedy of all time.
When we are showing the actors in our music video it is important that their actions are believable. Primarily it is set in Modern day but we have considered Romeo and Juliet as a story and studied the modern film adaptation featuring Leonardo Di Caprio. We have tried to perform a love tragedy and the Shakespearean writing of a well known love tragedy is effective to work off of. Despite not following the conventions of a love tragedy, we have taken aspects and portrayed them in a way which would be full of meaning and effect.
When we are showing the actors in our music video it is important that their actions are believable. Primarily it is set in Modern day but we have considered Romeo and Juliet as a story and studied the modern film adaptation featuring Leonardo Di Caprio. We have tried to perform a love tragedy and the Shakespearean writing of a well known love tragedy is effective to work off of. Despite not following the conventions of a love tragedy, we have taken aspects and portrayed them in a way which would be full of meaning and effect.
Friday, 29 July 2011
Categories of Music Videos
Performance-
The music video category of performance is a simplistic visual usually using a minimal budget. Performance videos often show the artist throughout the majority, if not all, of the music video. Quite oftenly, the music video is associated with clips embedded from elsewhere.
A positive example of a Performance music video would be the song 'Hero' by 'Nickelback'. We are shown the band on a rooftop of what looks like the backstreets of New York. This song offically collates with the film 'Spiderman'. This was the official soundtrack of the Spiderman movie released in 2002. Within the music video we can see small snippets of the film, which couild act as a film promoter as well as a music video. The whole concept of the band being on top of a building in NYC would be very effective in terms of promoting the band 'Nickelback' and the film 'Spiderman'.
A performance video would often be associated with rock bands. Bands such as 'Nickelback', 'The Fray' and 'The Darkness' would show the artist throughout most of the video.
So, Why do some artists insist on showing themselves as the centre of the audience's attention?
Merely for promotional purposes, it would seem. Sometimes an artist would like to create an icon for themselves, and for people to begin to recognise members of the band, lead singer especially. It's quite clear that performance music videos are often used by bands more than solo artists. If an audience could see a band, they can relate to the lyrics and gain a positive aura. Sometimes, it would seem that to see the artist is better because the audience could potentiallly create a relation to the video and then they can pinpoint lyrics, analysing them in the process and furthermore relating it to their lives.
Performance music videos are effective due to the circumstances. Most of these are done out of choice to focus on the artist rather than effects ETC. As mentioned before, there would be more than one purpose for many performance music videos. 'Hero' By 'Nickelback' has two purposes, the video for the bands portfolio and promoter for then, upcoming movie, 'Spiderman'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zueKq3z3Sk
Narrative-
Narrative music videos are exactly what they sound like. They tell a story and tends to use actors instead of members of the band. The actions of the actors most likely would relate to the lyrics. Sometimes in a controversial song, the act would be contradictory of what the song is trying to acheive, mainly for effect.
A good example of a conventonal Narrative video would be 'The Killers' song 'When you were Young'. The location is in what looks like South America and pictures a couple and their progress of falling in and out of love. It is very effective and goes alongside the lyris, it would seem. The concept of 'He doesn't look a thing like Jesus" is traditionally what Hispanic woman set their aims for when looking for a man. So the whole setting and that lyric contradict each other effectively. The song seems powerful and the words in the song are hugely significant to the video.
Despite the music video being solely based on the actors, we see Brandon Flowes, Lead singer of 'The Killers' in certain parts of the song. This shows him in the place of a narrator, and this furthermore promotes Brandon Flowers as the icon for 'The Killers', which he well and truly is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff0oWESdmH0
Concept-
The concept music video soley focuses on one thing or idea and is mainly unusual. These videos, to be perfectly honest, are not the most appealing to all people, but there are some hugely positive and effective ones.
The one I think is the best example of a concept music video would be another 'Killers' song. 'Read my mind' sees Brandon Flowers and other members of the band, including actors going through a stream of interesting and highly unusual antics. The idea, when analysed is that it is hugely dreamlike when you see the goings-on in the music video. It is set in Tokyo, and immensly surreal when you evaluate everything going on in the video.
The dreamlike state relates to 'Read My Mind' in terms of somebody trying to pinpoint emotions of a person they are talking to and the concept of reading one's mind relates to magic and what a magician claims he/she can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8hbSM1zVo&ob=av3e
The music video category of performance is a simplistic visual usually using a minimal budget. Performance videos often show the artist throughout the majority, if not all, of the music video. Quite oftenly, the music video is associated with clips embedded from elsewhere.
A positive example of a Performance music video would be the song 'Hero' by 'Nickelback'. We are shown the band on a rooftop of what looks like the backstreets of New York. This song offically collates with the film 'Spiderman'. This was the official soundtrack of the Spiderman movie released in 2002. Within the music video we can see small snippets of the film, which couild act as a film promoter as well as a music video. The whole concept of the band being on top of a building in NYC would be very effective in terms of promoting the band 'Nickelback' and the film 'Spiderman'.
A performance video would often be associated with rock bands. Bands such as 'Nickelback', 'The Fray' and 'The Darkness' would show the artist throughout most of the video.
So, Why do some artists insist on showing themselves as the centre of the audience's attention?
Merely for promotional purposes, it would seem. Sometimes an artist would like to create an icon for themselves, and for people to begin to recognise members of the band, lead singer especially. It's quite clear that performance music videos are often used by bands more than solo artists. If an audience could see a band, they can relate to the lyrics and gain a positive aura. Sometimes, it would seem that to see the artist is better because the audience could potentiallly create a relation to the video and then they can pinpoint lyrics, analysing them in the process and furthermore relating it to their lives.
Performance music videos are effective due to the circumstances. Most of these are done out of choice to focus on the artist rather than effects ETC. As mentioned before, there would be more than one purpose for many performance music videos. 'Hero' By 'Nickelback' has two purposes, the video for the bands portfolio and promoter for then, upcoming movie, 'Spiderman'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zueKq3z3Sk
Narrative-
Narrative music videos are exactly what they sound like. They tell a story and tends to use actors instead of members of the band. The actions of the actors most likely would relate to the lyrics. Sometimes in a controversial song, the act would be contradictory of what the song is trying to acheive, mainly for effect.
A good example of a conventonal Narrative video would be 'The Killers' song 'When you were Young'. The location is in what looks like South America and pictures a couple and their progress of falling in and out of love. It is very effective and goes alongside the lyris, it would seem. The concept of 'He doesn't look a thing like Jesus" is traditionally what Hispanic woman set their aims for when looking for a man. So the whole setting and that lyric contradict each other effectively. The song seems powerful and the words in the song are hugely significant to the video.
Despite the music video being solely based on the actors, we see Brandon Flowes, Lead singer of 'The Killers' in certain parts of the song. This shows him in the place of a narrator, and this furthermore promotes Brandon Flowers as the icon for 'The Killers', which he well and truly is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff0oWESdmH0
Concept-
The concept music video soley focuses on one thing or idea and is mainly unusual. These videos, to be perfectly honest, are not the most appealing to all people, but there are some hugely positive and effective ones.
The one I think is the best example of a concept music video would be another 'Killers' song. 'Read my mind' sees Brandon Flowers and other members of the band, including actors going through a stream of interesting and highly unusual antics. The idea, when analysed is that it is hugely dreamlike when you see the goings-on in the music video. It is set in Tokyo, and immensly surreal when you evaluate everything going on in the video.
The dreamlike state relates to 'Read My Mind' in terms of somebody trying to pinpoint emotions of a person they are talking to and the concept of reading one's mind relates to magic and what a magician claims he/she can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8hbSM1zVo&ob=av3e
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Goodwin's Analysis and Laura Mulvey's analysis
Laura Mulvey's analysis
The idea of objectifying women has been challenged by the words of Laura Mulvey, a feminist who focuses on the fact women are wrongly portrayed in the media. The main portrayal of woman in Laura Mulvey's theroy would appeal greatly to a typical hetrosexual man. A scene in a movie and/or music video would focus on woman and linger on certain parts of a women's body. Mulvey comments on the negative presentation of women in film and therefore speaks of a degrading sense, regarding women.
Goodwin's analysis
'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' was an eye opener regarding the production of music videos. Andrew Goodwin identifies a number of key features to determine the music video industry as a form of media. Some points he decalred was-
The idea of objectifying women has been challenged by the words of Laura Mulvey, a feminist who focuses on the fact women are wrongly portrayed in the media. The main portrayal of woman in Laura Mulvey's theroy would appeal greatly to a typical hetrosexual man. A scene in a movie and/or music video would focus on woman and linger on certain parts of a women's body. Mulvey comments on the negative presentation of women in film and therefore speaks of a degrading sense, regarding women.
Goodwin's analysis
'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' was an eye opener regarding the production of music videos. Andrew Goodwin identifies a number of key features to determine the music video industry as a form of media. Some points he decalred was-
- There is a key relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The visuals often analysed lyrics and illustrates them, accordingly. There is also oppurtunity to contradict the lyrics.
- The same would apply to the relationship between the audio music and visuals on screen.
- The complextion of the genres are also diverse in terms of video style and icons.
- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the singer in question.
- Intertextuality would feature a lot, either promoting other music videos or to film and tv texts.
Friday, 22 July 2011
Questionnaire
1) In general, why do you feel you watch music videos?
2) What are your favourite genres of music?
3) What is your favourite music video?
4) Why is this your favourite music video?
5) On a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy videos that tell a story?
6) We are planning to create a music video for The Fray's 'You Found Me'
that would depict a relationship and would force you to side with either of
the characters, whilst trying to avoid clichés.
that would depict a relationship and would force you to side with either of
the characters, whilst trying to avoid clichés.
Furthermore we would aim to leave the audience shrouded in mystery until
the very end, does this sound like a music video you would watch, and
why (not)?
the very end, does this sound like a music video you would watch, and
why (not)?
For the first question we put to the participants of our questionnaire, the general consensus we received was that people watched music videos for the fantasy that they brought about and to escape to a fantasy world. Of course, this is one of the parts of the Uses & Gratifications Theory and therefore we will be looking to provide an element of escapism; which will make the strength of our plot and narrative imperative to the success of our music video.
Indie, Rock and R&B were the three most popular genres of music among the participants and since The Fray’s ‘You Found Me’ would be classified between Indie and Rock which means we would be tapping into a popular genre of song. Creativity, location and the mise-en-scene were the most important aspects of the participants’ favourite music videos, which will mean that our planning process will be of utmost importance and we will definitely keep these elements in mind.
The average of the scale of one to ten was exactly eight that means again our idea seems to be popular, but a more explicit gauge of this is found within the last question. As our AS Media idea was not tapping into a popular genre of film, this meant that there was a slight disadvantage before we had created our film opening but here a more popular genre may play into our hands and allow us to be more creative accordingly.
The responses to the last question were varied to say the least. The majority of respondents said that they would watch it but it would depend on the cheesiness and effect of the music video itself. In addition, two further answers questioned how they would be forced to pick a side within the depicted relationship and another answer stated it would have to be thoroughly entertaining. Therefore we will have to bear in mind its effect on the audience and to avoid clichés at all times, but the responses of our target audience have been undoubtedly positive and this data will be useful when creating the video.
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