Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Music Video Idea's Feedback
Narrative- Having the idea that we're having a circular narrative with the head phones at the beginning and end is a really good idea, but make sure that the editing we do is of a standard that compliments the idea we want to create.
Genre- The balance between an upbeat and slow song is perfect. We can have a mix of longer shots with short sharp shots. The beat of the song is fast pace and slow to begin with. The lyrics themselves would be easy to lip sync to. Be careful to not make the editing dull.
Concept- Overlapping images and projects are a good idea and original. Good referencing to Jaden Smiths music video.
Performance- Try avoiding coping other performances and shots too much, its easy to copy a video that's already been made. Having shadows and projections are a good idea.
Settings- Having one setting being in a pool is a good way to link the lyrics and the images.
Advice- make sure shots aren't too long
Genre- The balance between an upbeat and slow song is perfect. We can have a mix of longer shots with short sharp shots. The beat of the song is fast pace and slow to begin with. The lyrics themselves would be easy to lip sync to. Be careful to not make the editing dull.
Concept- Overlapping images and projects are a good idea and original. Good referencing to Jaden Smiths music video.
Performance- Try avoiding coping other performances and shots too much, its easy to copy a video that's already been made. Having shadows and projections are a good idea.
Settings- Having one setting being in a pool is a good way to link the lyrics and the images.
Advice- make sure shots aren't too long
Friday, 20 September 2013
Thursday, 19 September 2013
Teachers Comments And Feedback
13th November
Mr Anstee
We decided not to use the first shot because the artist looks uncomfortable and unnatural in the shot (which doesn't conform to the conventions of the genre, because within our genre the artist should be passionate and lively about their own song, which is what our artist doesn't portray.). We also feel that the artist standing there makes the viewer focus more on the actual artist rather than the shadow singing those lines of the lyrics.
The bad shot of the artist in the red back ground wasn't effective because the artist was too far over to the right and would have made it difficult for the viewer to see exactly who the artist is. Especially because these shot have the short duration of only 1 second anyway. The shot of the water being projected on to the artist and the stars, was bad because you couldn't see the mouth movement clearly enough whist she was lip syncing. Whereas, the pink cloud projection, you can clearly see the artist's face, which also attract to the target the audience because they want to see the artist fully, especially if they're are new to the industry.
Mr A
31st October- Miss Shuttle.
Blog Evaluation
At the moment, your blog is currently reaching a LEVEL 3. This is because you are developing reflection on your work and improving your work based on feedback.
In order to achieve a Level 4, you need to continue developing your research and planning - ensuring you show a wider range of information into artists and other products on the market. Show more detailed planning into storyboarding and reflect on this.
NSE
Level 4 16–20 marks
16th September- Miss Shuttle.
Preliminary Evaluation Post
www: You cover a range of points looking at the strengths and weaknesses of your production.
EBI: You need to aim to develop your analysis - try to be more critical and develop singular points - this way you will reach a higher level for evaluation. Also, use still images to analyse in more detail and show direct evidence.
Mr Anstee
Paige
Excellent work on your first day of filming. The still shots and "good/ bad" examples work really well.
Try to develop your explanation and evaluation a little more, linking them to your plans/ audience/ genre/ song. Why were you using each projection and the shadow in the first place and how successfully did you achieve whatever effect you were creating or whatever convention you were following or challenging?
Mr A
Excellent work on your first day of filming. The still shots and "good/ bad" examples work really well.
Try to develop your explanation and evaluation a little more, linking them to your plans/ audience/ genre/ song. Why were you using each projection and the shadow in the first place and how successfully did you achieve whatever effect you were creating or whatever convention you were following or challenging?
Mr A
We decided not to use the first shot because the artist looks uncomfortable and unnatural in the shot (which doesn't conform to the conventions of the genre, because within our genre the artist should be passionate and lively about their own song, which is what our artist doesn't portray.). We also feel that the artist standing there makes the viewer focus more on the actual artist rather than the shadow singing those lines of the lyrics.
The bad shot of the artist in the red back ground wasn't effective because the artist was too far over to the right and would have made it difficult for the viewer to see exactly who the artist is. Especially because these shot have the short duration of only 1 second anyway. The shot of the water being projected on to the artist and the stars, was bad because you couldn't see the mouth movement clearly enough whist she was lip syncing. Whereas, the pink cloud projection, you can clearly see the artist's face, which also attract to the target the audience because they want to see the artist fully, especially if they're are new to the industry.
Mr A
31st October- Miss Shuttle.
Blog Evaluation
At the moment, your blog is currently reaching a LEVEL 3. This is because you are developing reflection on your work and improving your work based on feedback.
In order to achieve a Level 4, you need to continue developing your research and planning - ensuring you show a wider range of information into artists and other products on the market. Show more detailed planning into storyboarding and reflect on this.
NSE
Level 4 16–20 marks
16th September- Miss Shuttle.
Preliminary Evaluation Post
www: You cover a range of points looking at the strengths and weaknesses of your production.
EBI: You need to aim to develop your analysis - try to be more critical and develop singular points - this way you will reach a higher level for evaluation. Also, use still images to analyse in more detail and show direct evidence.
I should have aimed to directly compare our preliminary task with another video made. This would have shown our weakness' and strengths more clearly.
16th September- Miss Shuttle.
Star Profile On Britney
www: You have given a clear indication of the changes to Britney over time, in terms of her lifestyle.
EBI: You must be clearer and develop the information about how she is represented - how her representation changes - use key information regarding costumes in videos, photoshoots, hairstyles, song lyrics etc. (Also, struggling to read some of the writing on the images.)
Rather than focusing on Britney over time within her personal life, I should have focused more on her career and her as an artist. Shown more clearly how she has changed from the country girl performer she started of as.EBI: You must be clearer and develop the information about how she is represented - how her representation changes - use key information regarding costumes in videos, photoshoots, hairstyles, song lyrics etc. (Also, struggling to read some of the writing on the images.)
16th September- Miss Shuttle
Goodwin's Theory- Don't Speak
www: You have clearly begun to analyse the different aspects of the video, considering Goodwin's theory. You have used visuals to represent what exactly you are talking about.
EBI: It's important that you check over your punctuation use etc, as clarity of expression in your written work is also considered. Try to also develop why you think the band chose a narrative/performance video that could provide a negative image of the band.
EBI: It's important that you check over your punctuation use etc, as clarity of expression in your written work is also considered. Try to also develop why you think the band chose a narrative/performance video that could provide a negative image of the band.
Look over my work before I publish it to my blog. I feel that the bend chose a more narrative based video to appeal to their target audience and successfully establish them as artists. This could have a negative impact on the bad as the lead singer is promoting exclusion from her bandmates.
Production Diary
Tuesday 11th- Today I was able to start my final evaluation question as the school managed to create a account. I feel that being able to explore the programme of Voice thread will improve our technologies used. I also uploaded the permission forms to our artist's who we have used their productions.
Tuesday 4th- Today I started Work on the voice thread for my second evaluation question. I found this difficult to start as it wouldn't upload due to file type and unsupported items. As we would like to example our ability to use multiple media technologies we have chosen to use Prezi, Voice Thread, Power Point and created a youtube video.
Thursday 27th- Ellie and I worked together on finalising the target audience feedback evaluation question and the effectiveness of our products and ancillary texts. This was helpful as we were both able to see what improvements can be made and if either of us had missed anything out that should have been included, we were able to feedback to each other before we exported and uploaded anything to our blogs.
Wednesday 26th- Today I made a start on my second evaluation question on how the production conforms or subverts conventions. I plan to use the program Voice Thread so i can pause the clip and talk about the conventions.
Tuesday 18th- During half term, Ellie and I used an old plan of our first day of shooting and used this to start our storyboard. We've decided that we will include the first minute of the song, as we originally planned to have multiple shots covering up the artists of many people listing to our song in their head phones, which obviously had been modified since then. We are also using a middle 30 seconds of the plan when the beat drops as we originally was going to have some sort of explosion of powder paint or mud/water being thrown.
Friday 14th- Today Ellie and I decided to add in parts of the actual production whilst people were giving feedback to show a clear example of what people were talking about. The outcome of our target audience feedback was really effective and made it easier to make a clear comparison to what we've changed along the way.
Tuesday 11th- Today I started editing the target audience feedback. I found that this task easier than what I thought it would be. As we filmed myself commenting on the target audience feedback it was easy to cut the commentary after a comment was made.
Wednesday 5th- Today I was able to get started when filming my audience feedback. I found this difficult at first due to, when people found out I was going to be filming them, they decided they would rather withdraw from the task. However, I was able to find participating people who were more than happy to help. I used a range of people who had media knowledge and people who had none. This was most effective as some where able to comment on the production using media terminology and some where very straight forward.
Monday 3rd-Today we were able to export and upload our video! As my 2 evaluation questions are target audience feedback and conforming to the conventions of our genre, I needed our video to be complete and uploaded to youtube as i plan on filming people and getting their thoughts on the production. I also plan on using Video Thread where I can use a voice over the video whilst it plays.
Tuesday 28th- Today Ellie worked on touching up the final production. I spent today updating the risk assessment we created for when we filmed our production. This made us realise that for our next future plan to film, we will be more precocious.
Monday 20th- Ellie and I discussed ideas on our digipack. We decided that the photos we took on first day of filming will the ones we will use. That way we can have a reoccurring theme to keep continuity within the pack.
Thursday 16th- Today we organised our final day of filming. We have 17 seconds left of our production. We have decided that most of that will include Ellie, however we will re-film the location where I am lip syncing infront of a black and white back drop. Although the shots we have already work effectively, we feel that if we reshoot them the outcome could look better. We will also take more photos for our digipack.
Wednesday 15th- Today was spent the time working on a blog and editing our productions. We also took some pictures so that I could upload on to the website. The pictures came out really well when we used a filter. This meant that the photos emphasised the artist and focused on artist rather than anything else.
Monday 13th- Today Ellie and I discussed what we liked through our video as it stood and discussed what we thought the strengths and weakness's were of the video and we decided that some parts weren't as on point and on time as what we would like it to be. We replaced some shots with a complete different scene and we changed the ending shots as it didn't amtch the "happy ending" we had created.
Friday 10th- Today I started to design our website. I found this a harder task than I first imagine. As our artist isn't the conventional pop star the wording and lexis of our website needed to be less cheesy and more sophisticated and original. This was found difficult as it was hard to sound enthusiastic without sounding American or too much like a pop artist. However, I really enjoyed creating our artist and binging her to life virtually.
Thursday 8th- Today Ellie spent time looking the extras on after effects to see what she could manipulate with her conceptual ideas. She found that she can make images brighter and more clearer with her images. Today I started researching the past digipacks that have been created. I found this difficult to find real life examples and had to result in looking for past a level examples in order to get ideas for our own. We have decided to have 4 out of 6 images to be of our artist and our front cover will be of Rai light writing her name. The lyrics and the square where the CD goes will not be of the artist as it cant be shown.
Tuesday 6th- Today Ellie looked at after affects for her conceptual parts within the video. We realised that we do not have a consistent colour scheme like our inspirations such as Lana Del Ray (who uses pastel colours to promote herself) and Rihanna, who has a passionate a vibrant red. Our colour scheme is bright however there isn't a reoccurring colour that you could attach to our artist. Due to this, Ellie and I found an accessory on after affects which made one our conceptual images flash in different colour but not compromising out image. Today I spent researching our 3 main musical inspirations for our artist Rai. These were the previous 2 artists' mentioned along with the artist of our original song, Warm Water, we looked at Banks.
Wednesday 18th- Today we spent some time updating our blogs and start perfecting the shots we have already made. For example, when at the beginning of our video, we establish the artist from all different angles walking towards the club. We did have the artist at a standstill and the started walking, however we changed it so it looked as though it was filmed from loads of cameras that focused of different aspects of the artist, filming the artist walking just once, when in reality, we had to film the walk lots of times and just moved the positioning and focus of the camera with each take.
Tuesday 17th- Today we talked about the beginning of our digipack. Our first ideas for the digipack was to have different poses of the artist against the background of different colours. This will mean that the consumer will get to see all the different layers and sides the artist can have. We also decided that indebtwene the artist clapping, we was going to have conceptual images for Ellie. However, when we came to edit it, the shots were too short and were not long enough to establish Ellie as any concept.
Friday 13th- We started to edit the shots of Ellie. We have decided that we want to edit with after effects of the shots of Ellie. This is because the shots of the artist needs to be clear and consistent but the shots of the conceptual character can be varied and diverse.
Wednesday 11th- Today Ellie and I started our filming of conceptual ideas. We decided to film a 180 degree shot of Ellie blowing out smoke and then into the camera. The shots that we got of Ellie came out really well but we decided that we are going have Ellie's face within the shot, as before we decided that we didn't want to have any shots of Ellie's face to stop any confusion for the viewer but when we started to film it was less effective and more confusion because it was hard to establish the difference between myself and Ellie.
Thursday 5th- Today we started filming our conceptual ideas as we knew there was a big chunk where we the tempo of the music changes and its much slower so we therefore knew we could start to film that. We got to our location and the temperature was very cold and therefore created difficulty when wanting to film. It was very useful because when we originally wanted for that section in the song (slow motion of Ellie spinning round) might not work and will be harder than what we thought to create.
Wednesday 27th- Today Ellie I spent filming. We filmed more performance based shots as we feel that it will be easier to find the gaps which we can fill in with conceptual ideas rather than the other way round. Filming went really well as we decided to take our setting inside so we could have a diverse set of shots and played with lighting. This came out really effectively as we were able to imitate the Miley Cyrus' video of Wrecking Ball and have a close up of the artist showing the emotion of the song. We also decided to have a shot of the artist in the bath to run along parallel with the lyric of "Warm Water". We decided to have the artist wearing clothes to represent how the love has been exhausting and draining for her.
Tuesday 26th- Today Ellie and I started to plan the beginning of our production so that we are ready for filming tomorrow. Originally Ellie and I said how we wanted to keep our video all outside as inside a bedroom etc can look unprofessional. However, after speaking to the specialist Connell yesterday, we decided that the setting of the shot only matters depending on the shot. For an extreme Close Up the setting of the entire room doesn't matter, its what the viewer see's of the shot that matters, therefore we've decided we can now shoot some scenes inside and that Ellie and I should focus more on lighting.
Monday 25th- Today we had a Premier Pro and After Effects specialist come in and speak to the media class about editing and process we should think about/routes we should take when creating a music video. Our teacher agreed with Connell by saying our song is less upbeat than what our images portray and we need to make the artist less happy in order for it to stop subverting the conventions of our song genre. (We showed him the same production that we showed our half way through evaluation people). He spoke to Ellie and I saying that we need to show the emotional journey our artists' take and that has to be really clear to the viewer. This meant that Ellie and I are now planning to re-shoot most of the beginning of our production, therefore when we get to the drop of our song, we can clearly show the emotional change the artist has gone through throughout the song.
Thursday 21st- Today I uploaded the feedback we received half way through our production. This was found really helpful because Ellie and I have decided to change our opening scene. We are still having our opening shot that establishes the setting and the artist from the back but for the first verse we now would like to have an close up of the artist. This is because form the feedback, someone said that the opening at the moment was confusing and hard to follow.
Wednesday 20th- Today we looked at last years blog and looked at their planning and research. We found this useful because we realised the strengths and weakness' of our own blogs. For example, Ellie and I have a lot of detail in all of our posts and have explained step by the step the actions we have taken. However, we realised that we lack in a range of technology we used. We found that one of the girls from the previous year had used a slideshow of still images called Picasa. We decided we will be able to use that in order to put together all the pictures we have taken during filming.
Tuesday 19th- Today was spent filming feedback from our production so far. We filmed a mixture of boys and girls and asked them to view our video what we've filmed so far. We struggled to find enough people for our feedback because we were filming them airing their thoughts. This was really useful as Ellie and I got the encouragement we needed from people to carry on getting the shots we needed. The improvements that were said were also good because we were able to identity the flaws so far. For example, a person said that the continuity at the beginning was hard to keep up with.
Thursday 14th- Today Ellie and I spent uploading and editing the shots we had shot the previous day. We formed the beginning and the end of the music video, by adding in the tilt from the sky down to the artist. The end was a collection of shots that we used whilst filming. This was more shots of just the camera following the artist during the production of their music video. These shots worked really well at the end of the video as it rounded the video nicely on a high which also conformed to the conventions of the genre of the music.
Wednesday 13th- Today Ellie and I done our second day of filming. We firstly went to a location that was an overpass in Harold wood. We started to film and found the setting was not ideal and the artist looked uncomfortable and looked very amateur. We found it difficult to get any good shots or angles that was effective and because of the time of day and place, the lip syncing was ineffective. We then filmed at another setting of south Weald. This was much more effective as we had planned the shots a lot more precisely so when we arrived at the destination we knew exactly what we had to film. We filmed the mostly on the parts which was mostly brick work and less woodland. This was because the long shots with foliage in the background made the shots looked less effective. We then went to abandoned nightclub Elliot's. We arrived at this destination at about 2 o'clock which meant we were running out of natural lighting but the lighting we had at that time was really complimentary of the artist. We didn't want to make the shots repetitive of just having the artist in front of a graffiti wall, so we had one verse of the artist on some tyres.
Monday and Tuesday 11th and 12th- Ellie and I spent today preparing the things we need for our second day of filming on Wednesday the 13th. We reprinted out the lyrics so when we film we know the parts we need to actually sing. We also did a shot list in chronological order of the song so when we get there we can shoot more of the artist in an organised way. We also want to prepare the camera and SD cards and tripods so that we are ready for tomorrow. Ellie and I also came up with a 3rd location for the artist as we feel that just 2 location is not enough and will get very repetitive for the viewer. We've also came up with a back location in case Elliot's nightclub doesn't work out how we would like to. We also started filling in a health risk assessment sheet in order to keep on top of the risks we face from the beginning.
Friday 8th- We are now concentrating on finishing off the storyboard so we can follow our storyboard when filming. This was really helpful because we finalised all shot types and angle in keeping with time in seconds for our music video. This made our story board much easier to create.
Thursday 7th- Ellie and I talked about settings and the modifications made to our filming we have already got. We also decided that after Wednesday we will do another focus group to get target audience feedback on what we have already done.
Wednesday 6th- Ellie spent today creating posts such as Costume (which we will continuously add to), a collection of bad and good shots that we did on our first day of filming with commentary explaining why we chose the shots we chose and the shoots that did and didn't work. We also came up with our next date to film. Which will be Wednesday 13th. We will film the rest/most of my filming so we can then concentrate on Ellie's conceptual parts.
Monday 28th- Ellie and I started our filming. We filmed the projection and shadow part for the 2nd chorus. This worked really well and we feel that projected images we decided to project on to the artist worked really effectively. The shadow idea did have to get altered slightly as we originally just wanted the side profile of just the artist' face, however when we went to film just the face, it was really difficult and had to have a mid shot including the upper torso of the shadow.
Monday 21st- Today I completed Alfie Shea's peer assessment on his blog. I looked at his lip syncing practice and found this helped me because Alfie is a natural performer and it was obvious to see that being comfortable and confident in front of the camera made the lip syncing task more effective.
Thursday 17th- Today Ellie and I finished of the treatment prezi and added another influence to our influences. This being We Found Love video by Rihanna. We also looked at another location for performance sections. This being an old abandoned night club in West Horndon. We like the look of Elliots Night club because of the graffiti and the bright colour. We also feel this setting would run parallel with attitude of the artist and will also feel there is a lot of opportunity for cool editing within that setting.
Wednesday 16th- We had an assessment in the lesson so that our teachers can check our progress within the subject. I got 17 out of 19 correct and learnt what a cut in is. It is when you go to another body part of the same person in the next shot. This was helpful as Ellie and I think that we could use that within our coursework. We also added to the treatment prezi and started to work together when discussing the concept, atrist style and form. We also came up with a name for our artist being, Rae. We had a choice between Briony, Romy, Rylie and Rae. We chose Rae because it was short shart and punchy and the other names could have been pronounced wrongly having a different effective on the fans of our artist.
Friday 11th- Today I broke down the feedback we gathered from our target audience from the questionnaire. We added this feedback to our treatment. I found that by analysing these results we found that gender have very different attitudes towards artist's and music videos. It was good because Ellie and I will now take into consideration that our video needs to appeal to both genders and what they like to watch when viewing music videos.
Wednesday 9th- In this lesson, Ellie and I filmed our target audience giving us feedback on our choice of song and their opinions. We also gave people an attached questionnaire to fill out containing questions of music video's in general. We found this really helpful because we found patterns in preference and gender, for example, boys prefer sex appeal and girls prefer vocal ability when they see a female artist. Ellie spend the lesson editing the video format feedback, we asked the students 3 questions each and the editing was done so that all the replies to the first question was put all together and the same was done for the next 2 questions also.
Tuesday 8th- Today Ellie and I sat together and talked through the target audience for the treatment. We thought about creating a questionnaire for boys and girls but then we started to devise the questions, we decided that we didn't need to do 2 separate ones. We also decided that we are going to film certain individuals and ask them on their opinion of our ideas etc. We decided that the filming of the target audience (although part of the treatment) will be a continuous thing. We will film the same people, at the beginning of our production, during the production and when the production is finished.
Friday 4th- Today I started my music video Treatment. Ellie and I decided that I was going to work on Locations and Logistics and Ellie would work on Influences and Technology and we would work together on the other topics; Concept, artist/Style and Form and Target Audience. We split the task in order to reduce work load and on the harder topics where we both need to add input will be better if we work together on it.
Wednesday 2nd- We shot our lip syncing practice of the original version of Banks - Warm Water. I found this task really helpful as we learned that when you sing the song, the mouth movements become less obvious and harder to see. It looks as though you aren't moving your mouth but sound is coming out. Therefore, lip syncing was the best option to use in our music video. I also found that confidence is key. The more comfortable you feel in front of the camera the more natural it looks.
Monday 1st- I went to South Weald country park and collected some still images of parts which I feel we could use in our music video. I feel that this was really helpful as I realised it would be the better location for our concept ideas rather than performance. It was a good setting to use in order make our conceptual idea's look edgy and unusual.
Wednesday 25th- I uploaded the scanned images of the lyric analysis. Whilst going through the lyrics, we realised that we would need to film 80%worth of performance based but only have our music video consist of 60% performance based. We also realised that rather than a narrative based video we should have a more concept based video. The more basic the idea we have, the more effective it will be. We decided that if we create a whole character and a back story (for the narrative side of the video) it would be too clique, boring a repetitive for the viewer.
Tuesday 24th- pitched our ideas of song choices and music video ideas and got feedback from it. I learned that the performance would be better if it was limited and more performance based. Plus most marks that are available are for lip syncing rather than the concept of our music video. Also, it would be within our interest to try and do some of the editing we have in mind, as we have a clear idea of what we want to include in our video but it may be too hard to do and be less effective on the viewer. Having a range of settings would also be really helpful to running parallel with the genre.
Monday 23rd- Today I peer assessed Alfie Shea's blog and commented on what I feel he'd dome well and what I feel he could have improved on.
Thursday the 19th- Today I caught up on my production diary and made a new post for putting the feedback my teachers put on to my blog. I also went through the reasons why we chose the song we chose and why we decided against the songs we didn't choose in order to present to the class next week.
Wednesday 18th- Ellie and I went through the lyrics for Warm Water the remix and found the timings throughout each verse and how long the intro and ending is. I found this really helpful as were able to have a clear idea of how long each shot would need to last per verse and what the timings were able to offer us and whether we were able to have the kind of intro we wanted and the fade at the end.
Tuesday 17th- Today I finished making the presentation of looking at the branding for JLS and how they were promoted effectively. I found that JLS really targeted their target audience effectively and found that branding an artist needs to have familiarity and consistency.
Friday 13th- We then went through our 2 song choices with our other teacher Miss Shuttle to then finally decide on using the Warm Water Snakehips remix. We were able to decide this by making a mind map for both songs and just pitched ideas for certain parts of which song and the mind map which had the most ideas on, was the one we chose to use.
Thursday 12th- My partner (Ellie Wallace) and I, went through our favorite song choices with one of our teachers, Mr Anstee. We narrowed the song options down to 2 Warm Water the Snakehips remix and Fall over. He said that he liked our ideas for both songs but believed that the Snakehips remix offered more option for creative twist.
Wednesday 11th- I finished my Star Profile today and uploaded it to my blog. I also did a presentation evaluating the Preliminary Task.
Tuesday 10th- Today we had a theory lesson where we went through Laura Mulveys theory on the Male Gaze Theory and how women are objectified ion all types of media, purely for the gaze and pleasure of men.
Monday 9th- Today we were put in our selected groups that we will be working in over the next 2 terms. We was also set a task where we had to make a profile for a star and mention how the star has changed their style, branding and personal life in which has made their career. I made mine on Britney Spears. I learned that Britney started out as an actress at the Mickey Mouse Club.
Friday 6th- Today we started to edit the Britney preliminary video. We started to realize that we were having difficulties lip syncing the video and realized we still haven't filmed anything for the bell and clock shot.
Thursday 5th- Today we spoke about the course and what we would be doing until December.
Tuesday 4th- Today I started Work on the voice thread for my second evaluation question. I found this difficult to start as it wouldn't upload due to file type and unsupported items. As we would like to example our ability to use multiple media technologies we have chosen to use Prezi, Voice Thread, Power Point and created a youtube video.
Thursday 27th- Ellie and I worked together on finalising the target audience feedback evaluation question and the effectiveness of our products and ancillary texts. This was helpful as we were both able to see what improvements can be made and if either of us had missed anything out that should have been included, we were able to feedback to each other before we exported and uploaded anything to our blogs.
Wednesday 26th- Today I made a start on my second evaluation question on how the production conforms or subverts conventions. I plan to use the program Voice Thread so i can pause the clip and talk about the conventions.
Tuesday 18th- During half term, Ellie and I used an old plan of our first day of shooting and used this to start our storyboard. We've decided that we will include the first minute of the song, as we originally planned to have multiple shots covering up the artists of many people listing to our song in their head phones, which obviously had been modified since then. We are also using a middle 30 seconds of the plan when the beat drops as we originally was going to have some sort of explosion of powder paint or mud/water being thrown.
Friday 14th- Today Ellie and I decided to add in parts of the actual production whilst people were giving feedback to show a clear example of what people were talking about. The outcome of our target audience feedback was really effective and made it easier to make a clear comparison to what we've changed along the way.
Tuesday 11th- Today I started editing the target audience feedback. I found that this task easier than what I thought it would be. As we filmed myself commenting on the target audience feedback it was easy to cut the commentary after a comment was made.
Wednesday 5th- Today I was able to get started when filming my audience feedback. I found this difficult at first due to, when people found out I was going to be filming them, they decided they would rather withdraw from the task. However, I was able to find participating people who were more than happy to help. I used a range of people who had media knowledge and people who had none. This was most effective as some where able to comment on the production using media terminology and some where very straight forward.
Monday 3rd-Today we were able to export and upload our video! As my 2 evaluation questions are target audience feedback and conforming to the conventions of our genre, I needed our video to be complete and uploaded to youtube as i plan on filming people and getting their thoughts on the production. I also plan on using Video Thread where I can use a voice over the video whilst it plays.
Tuesday 28th- Today Ellie worked on touching up the final production. I spent today updating the risk assessment we created for when we filmed our production. This made us realise that for our next future plan to film, we will be more precocious.
Monday 20th- Ellie and I discussed ideas on our digipack. We decided that the photos we took on first day of filming will the ones we will use. That way we can have a reoccurring theme to keep continuity within the pack.
Thursday 16th- Today we organised our final day of filming. We have 17 seconds left of our production. We have decided that most of that will include Ellie, however we will re-film the location where I am lip syncing infront of a black and white back drop. Although the shots we have already work effectively, we feel that if we reshoot them the outcome could look better. We will also take more photos for our digipack.
Wednesday 15th- Today was spent the time working on a blog and editing our productions. We also took some pictures so that I could upload on to the website. The pictures came out really well when we used a filter. This meant that the photos emphasised the artist and focused on artist rather than anything else.
Monday 13th- Today Ellie and I discussed what we liked through our video as it stood and discussed what we thought the strengths and weakness's were of the video and we decided that some parts weren't as on point and on time as what we would like it to be. We replaced some shots with a complete different scene and we changed the ending shots as it didn't amtch the "happy ending" we had created.
Friday 10th- Today I started to design our website. I found this a harder task than I first imagine. As our artist isn't the conventional pop star the wording and lexis of our website needed to be less cheesy and more sophisticated and original. This was found difficult as it was hard to sound enthusiastic without sounding American or too much like a pop artist. However, I really enjoyed creating our artist and binging her to life virtually.
Thursday 8th- Today Ellie spent time looking the extras on after effects to see what she could manipulate with her conceptual ideas. She found that she can make images brighter and more clearer with her images. Today I started researching the past digipacks that have been created. I found this difficult to find real life examples and had to result in looking for past a level examples in order to get ideas for our own. We have decided to have 4 out of 6 images to be of our artist and our front cover will be of Rai light writing her name. The lyrics and the square where the CD goes will not be of the artist as it cant be shown.
Tuesday 6th- Today Ellie looked at after affects for her conceptual parts within the video. We realised that we do not have a consistent colour scheme like our inspirations such as Lana Del Ray (who uses pastel colours to promote herself) and Rihanna, who has a passionate a vibrant red. Our colour scheme is bright however there isn't a reoccurring colour that you could attach to our artist. Due to this, Ellie and I found an accessory on after affects which made one our conceptual images flash in different colour but not compromising out image. Today I spent researching our 3 main musical inspirations for our artist Rai. These were the previous 2 artists' mentioned along with the artist of our original song, Warm Water, we looked at Banks.
Wednesday 18th- Today we spent some time updating our blogs and start perfecting the shots we have already made. For example, when at the beginning of our video, we establish the artist from all different angles walking towards the club. We did have the artist at a standstill and the started walking, however we changed it so it looked as though it was filmed from loads of cameras that focused of different aspects of the artist, filming the artist walking just once, when in reality, we had to film the walk lots of times and just moved the positioning and focus of the camera with each take.
Tuesday 17th- Today we talked about the beginning of our digipack. Our first ideas for the digipack was to have different poses of the artist against the background of different colours. This will mean that the consumer will get to see all the different layers and sides the artist can have. We also decided that indebtwene the artist clapping, we was going to have conceptual images for Ellie. However, when we came to edit it, the shots were too short and were not long enough to establish Ellie as any concept.
Friday 13th- We started to edit the shots of Ellie. We have decided that we want to edit with after effects of the shots of Ellie. This is because the shots of the artist needs to be clear and consistent but the shots of the conceptual character can be varied and diverse.
Wednesday 11th- Today Ellie and I started our filming of conceptual ideas. We decided to film a 180 degree shot of Ellie blowing out smoke and then into the camera. The shots that we got of Ellie came out really well but we decided that we are going have Ellie's face within the shot, as before we decided that we didn't want to have any shots of Ellie's face to stop any confusion for the viewer but when we started to film it was less effective and more confusion because it was hard to establish the difference between myself and Ellie.
Thursday 5th- Today we started filming our conceptual ideas as we knew there was a big chunk where we the tempo of the music changes and its much slower so we therefore knew we could start to film that. We got to our location and the temperature was very cold and therefore created difficulty when wanting to film. It was very useful because when we originally wanted for that section in the song (slow motion of Ellie spinning round) might not work and will be harder than what we thought to create.
Wednesday 27th- Today Ellie I spent filming. We filmed more performance based shots as we feel that it will be easier to find the gaps which we can fill in with conceptual ideas rather than the other way round. Filming went really well as we decided to take our setting inside so we could have a diverse set of shots and played with lighting. This came out really effectively as we were able to imitate the Miley Cyrus' video of Wrecking Ball and have a close up of the artist showing the emotion of the song. We also decided to have a shot of the artist in the bath to run along parallel with the lyric of "Warm Water". We decided to have the artist wearing clothes to represent how the love has been exhausting and draining for her.
Tuesday 26th- Today Ellie and I started to plan the beginning of our production so that we are ready for filming tomorrow. Originally Ellie and I said how we wanted to keep our video all outside as inside a bedroom etc can look unprofessional. However, after speaking to the specialist Connell yesterday, we decided that the setting of the shot only matters depending on the shot. For an extreme Close Up the setting of the entire room doesn't matter, its what the viewer see's of the shot that matters, therefore we've decided we can now shoot some scenes inside and that Ellie and I should focus more on lighting.
Monday 25th- Today we had a Premier Pro and After Effects specialist come in and speak to the media class about editing and process we should think about/routes we should take when creating a music video. Our teacher agreed with Connell by saying our song is less upbeat than what our images portray and we need to make the artist less happy in order for it to stop subverting the conventions of our song genre. (We showed him the same production that we showed our half way through evaluation people). He spoke to Ellie and I saying that we need to show the emotional journey our artists' take and that has to be really clear to the viewer. This meant that Ellie and I are now planning to re-shoot most of the beginning of our production, therefore when we get to the drop of our song, we can clearly show the emotional change the artist has gone through throughout the song.
Thursday 21st- Today I uploaded the feedback we received half way through our production. This was found really helpful because Ellie and I have decided to change our opening scene. We are still having our opening shot that establishes the setting and the artist from the back but for the first verse we now would like to have an close up of the artist. This is because form the feedback, someone said that the opening at the moment was confusing and hard to follow.
Wednesday 20th- Today we looked at last years blog and looked at their planning and research. We found this useful because we realised the strengths and weakness' of our own blogs. For example, Ellie and I have a lot of detail in all of our posts and have explained step by the step the actions we have taken. However, we realised that we lack in a range of technology we used. We found that one of the girls from the previous year had used a slideshow of still images called Picasa. We decided we will be able to use that in order to put together all the pictures we have taken during filming.
Tuesday 19th- Today was spent filming feedback from our production so far. We filmed a mixture of boys and girls and asked them to view our video what we've filmed so far. We struggled to find enough people for our feedback because we were filming them airing their thoughts. This was really useful as Ellie and I got the encouragement we needed from people to carry on getting the shots we needed. The improvements that were said were also good because we were able to identity the flaws so far. For example, a person said that the continuity at the beginning was hard to keep up with.
Thursday 14th- Today Ellie and I spent uploading and editing the shots we had shot the previous day. We formed the beginning and the end of the music video, by adding in the tilt from the sky down to the artist. The end was a collection of shots that we used whilst filming. This was more shots of just the camera following the artist during the production of their music video. These shots worked really well at the end of the video as it rounded the video nicely on a high which also conformed to the conventions of the genre of the music.
Wednesday 13th- Today Ellie and I done our second day of filming. We firstly went to a location that was an overpass in Harold wood. We started to film and found the setting was not ideal and the artist looked uncomfortable and looked very amateur. We found it difficult to get any good shots or angles that was effective and because of the time of day and place, the lip syncing was ineffective. We then filmed at another setting of south Weald. This was much more effective as we had planned the shots a lot more precisely so when we arrived at the destination we knew exactly what we had to film. We filmed the mostly on the parts which was mostly brick work and less woodland. This was because the long shots with foliage in the background made the shots looked less effective. We then went to abandoned nightclub Elliot's. We arrived at this destination at about 2 o'clock which meant we were running out of natural lighting but the lighting we had at that time was really complimentary of the artist. We didn't want to make the shots repetitive of just having the artist in front of a graffiti wall, so we had one verse of the artist on some tyres.
Monday and Tuesday 11th and 12th- Ellie and I spent today preparing the things we need for our second day of filming on Wednesday the 13th. We reprinted out the lyrics so when we film we know the parts we need to actually sing. We also did a shot list in chronological order of the song so when we get there we can shoot more of the artist in an organised way. We also want to prepare the camera and SD cards and tripods so that we are ready for tomorrow. Ellie and I also came up with a 3rd location for the artist as we feel that just 2 location is not enough and will get very repetitive for the viewer. We've also came up with a back location in case Elliot's nightclub doesn't work out how we would like to. We also started filling in a health risk assessment sheet in order to keep on top of the risks we face from the beginning.
Friday 8th- We are now concentrating on finishing off the storyboard so we can follow our storyboard when filming. This was really helpful because we finalised all shot types and angle in keeping with time in seconds for our music video. This made our story board much easier to create.
Thursday 7th- Ellie and I talked about settings and the modifications made to our filming we have already got. We also decided that after Wednesday we will do another focus group to get target audience feedback on what we have already done.
Wednesday 6th- Ellie spent today creating posts such as Costume (which we will continuously add to), a collection of bad and good shots that we did on our first day of filming with commentary explaining why we chose the shots we chose and the shoots that did and didn't work. We also came up with our next date to film. Which will be Wednesday 13th. We will film the rest/most of my filming so we can then concentrate on Ellie's conceptual parts.
Monday 28th- Ellie and I started our filming. We filmed the projection and shadow part for the 2nd chorus. This worked really well and we feel that projected images we decided to project on to the artist worked really effectively. The shadow idea did have to get altered slightly as we originally just wanted the side profile of just the artist' face, however when we went to film just the face, it was really difficult and had to have a mid shot including the upper torso of the shadow.
Monday 21st- Today I completed Alfie Shea's peer assessment on his blog. I looked at his lip syncing practice and found this helped me because Alfie is a natural performer and it was obvious to see that being comfortable and confident in front of the camera made the lip syncing task more effective.
Thursday 17th- Today Ellie and I finished of the treatment prezi and added another influence to our influences. This being We Found Love video by Rihanna. We also looked at another location for performance sections. This being an old abandoned night club in West Horndon. We like the look of Elliots Night club because of the graffiti and the bright colour. We also feel this setting would run parallel with attitude of the artist and will also feel there is a lot of opportunity for cool editing within that setting.
Wednesday 16th- We had an assessment in the lesson so that our teachers can check our progress within the subject. I got 17 out of 19 correct and learnt what a cut in is. It is when you go to another body part of the same person in the next shot. This was helpful as Ellie and I think that we could use that within our coursework. We also added to the treatment prezi and started to work together when discussing the concept, atrist style and form. We also came up with a name for our artist being, Rae. We had a choice between Briony, Romy, Rylie and Rae. We chose Rae because it was short shart and punchy and the other names could have been pronounced wrongly having a different effective on the fans of our artist.
Friday 11th- Today I broke down the feedback we gathered from our target audience from the questionnaire. We added this feedback to our treatment. I found that by analysing these results we found that gender have very different attitudes towards artist's and music videos. It was good because Ellie and I will now take into consideration that our video needs to appeal to both genders and what they like to watch when viewing music videos.
Wednesday 9th- In this lesson, Ellie and I filmed our target audience giving us feedback on our choice of song and their opinions. We also gave people an attached questionnaire to fill out containing questions of music video's in general. We found this really helpful because we found patterns in preference and gender, for example, boys prefer sex appeal and girls prefer vocal ability when they see a female artist. Ellie spend the lesson editing the video format feedback, we asked the students 3 questions each and the editing was done so that all the replies to the first question was put all together and the same was done for the next 2 questions also.
Tuesday 8th- Today Ellie and I sat together and talked through the target audience for the treatment. We thought about creating a questionnaire for boys and girls but then we started to devise the questions, we decided that we didn't need to do 2 separate ones. We also decided that we are going to film certain individuals and ask them on their opinion of our ideas etc. We decided that the filming of the target audience (although part of the treatment) will be a continuous thing. We will film the same people, at the beginning of our production, during the production and when the production is finished.
Friday 4th- Today I started my music video Treatment. Ellie and I decided that I was going to work on Locations and Logistics and Ellie would work on Influences and Technology and we would work together on the other topics; Concept, artist/Style and Form and Target Audience. We split the task in order to reduce work load and on the harder topics where we both need to add input will be better if we work together on it.
Wednesday 2nd- We shot our lip syncing practice of the original version of Banks - Warm Water. I found this task really helpful as we learned that when you sing the song, the mouth movements become less obvious and harder to see. It looks as though you aren't moving your mouth but sound is coming out. Therefore, lip syncing was the best option to use in our music video. I also found that confidence is key. The more comfortable you feel in front of the camera the more natural it looks.
Monday 1st- I went to South Weald country park and collected some still images of parts which I feel we could use in our music video. I feel that this was really helpful as I realised it would be the better location for our concept ideas rather than performance. It was a good setting to use in order make our conceptual idea's look edgy and unusual.
Wednesday 25th- I uploaded the scanned images of the lyric analysis. Whilst going through the lyrics, we realised that we would need to film 80%worth of performance based but only have our music video consist of 60% performance based. We also realised that rather than a narrative based video we should have a more concept based video. The more basic the idea we have, the more effective it will be. We decided that if we create a whole character and a back story (for the narrative side of the video) it would be too clique, boring a repetitive for the viewer.
Tuesday 24th- pitched our ideas of song choices and music video ideas and got feedback from it. I learned that the performance would be better if it was limited and more performance based. Plus most marks that are available are for lip syncing rather than the concept of our music video. Also, it would be within our interest to try and do some of the editing we have in mind, as we have a clear idea of what we want to include in our video but it may be too hard to do and be less effective on the viewer. Having a range of settings would also be really helpful to running parallel with the genre.
Monday 23rd- Today I peer assessed Alfie Shea's blog and commented on what I feel he'd dome well and what I feel he could have improved on.
Thursday the 19th- Today I caught up on my production diary and made a new post for putting the feedback my teachers put on to my blog. I also went through the reasons why we chose the song we chose and why we decided against the songs we didn't choose in order to present to the class next week.
Wednesday 18th- Ellie and I went through the lyrics for Warm Water the remix and found the timings throughout each verse and how long the intro and ending is. I found this really helpful as were able to have a clear idea of how long each shot would need to last per verse and what the timings were able to offer us and whether we were able to have the kind of intro we wanted and the fade at the end.
Tuesday 17th- Today I finished making the presentation of looking at the branding for JLS and how they were promoted effectively. I found that JLS really targeted their target audience effectively and found that branding an artist needs to have familiarity and consistency.
Friday 13th- We then went through our 2 song choices with our other teacher Miss Shuttle to then finally decide on using the Warm Water Snakehips remix. We were able to decide this by making a mind map for both songs and just pitched ideas for certain parts of which song and the mind map which had the most ideas on, was the one we chose to use.
Thursday 12th- My partner (Ellie Wallace) and I, went through our favorite song choices with one of our teachers, Mr Anstee. We narrowed the song options down to 2 Warm Water the Snakehips remix and Fall over. He said that he liked our ideas for both songs but believed that the Snakehips remix offered more option for creative twist.
Wednesday 11th- I finished my Star Profile today and uploaded it to my blog. I also did a presentation evaluating the Preliminary Task.
Tuesday 10th- Today we had a theory lesson where we went through Laura Mulveys theory on the Male Gaze Theory and how women are objectified ion all types of media, purely for the gaze and pleasure of men.
Monday 9th- Today we were put in our selected groups that we will be working in over the next 2 terms. We was also set a task where we had to make a profile for a star and mention how the star has changed their style, branding and personal life in which has made their career. I made mine on Britney Spears. I learned that Britney started out as an actress at the Mickey Mouse Club.
Friday 6th- Today we started to edit the Britney preliminary video. We started to realize that we were having difficulties lip syncing the video and realized we still haven't filmed anything for the bell and clock shot.
Thursday 5th- Today we spoke about the course and what we would be doing until December.
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
Friday, 13 September 2013
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Laura Mulveys Male Gaze Theory
Kylie Minogues- Spinning Around
In Scouting For Girls video we saw this heavily represented the Male Gaze theory not just with the video but with the lyrics aswel. You can see how the men surrounding one woman were all besotted with her and her presence. The video started by following the girl up from her feet. This then teased the viewer all the way up her body and being able to see all of it in detail. The lyrics of the song also were not complimentary of women especially using the one line “she’s flirty, turned 30, about the age a girl is really dirty”. The girl also had a straw as a prop at one point in the video which is very seductive to a male as the girl was looking up at the men while sucking through a straw
Jlo's - Get On The Floor
We analysed Kylie Minogue’s Spinning Around, Scouting For Girls song She’s
So Lovely and lastly, Jlo’s song On The Floor. We found that in Kylies video
there was many close up shots of her figure or face which was then closely
followed by the next shot involving a man. Kylie was always centre of attention
and had men admiring her all the way to the dance floor. There was parts of the
video where Kylie was leading the male on to the dance floor when subverts the
Male Gaze theory and when they got to the dance floor it was Kylie being the
leader of the dance moves.
Scouting For Girls- She's So LovelyIn Scouting For Girls video we saw this heavily represented the Male Gaze theory not just with the video but with the lyrics aswel. You can see how the men surrounding one woman were all besotted with her and her presence. The video started by following the girl up from her feet. This then teased the viewer all the way up her body and being able to see all of it in detail. The lyrics of the song also were not complimentary of women especially using the one line “she’s flirty, turned 30, about the age a girl is really dirty”. The girl also had a straw as a prop at one point in the video which is very seductive to a male as the girl was looking up at the men while sucking through a straw
Jlo's - Get On The Floor
When watching Jlo’s video you see that, at the beginning,
she steps out of the car by herself and she sits above all of the other people
on the dance floor. She is represents a very powerful rich woman who is in
control of the other people dancing on the floor below. The costumes she wears
consists of very tight, figure hugging hump suits or indeed a costume that
consists of very little. However, in one peice of the video she has a woman
serve her a drink which subverts the Male Gaze theory as Jlo follows very manly
attributes and has a very pretty women serve her.
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