Final Product

http://vimeo.com/41502812

Evaluation 2 : How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Editing Diary

When editing our music video, I decided that as the song is a slow-paced love song an effective technique would be to slow down a lot of the footage. This actually worked in our favour as it meant we didn't have to do lots of rapid editing which can be extremely difficult and time-consuming. The parts I slowed down were all included in the black and white 'flashback' shots. The reason I used this technique is because the singer is clearly in love with someone and wants to remember everything about the other person. Slowing the footage down gives the impression that she maybe wanted those moments to last.

I edited the exposure and colour on the non-flashback shots so they would fit in with the retro theme of the video. I did this by slightly increasing the amount of red in the shots and slightly decreasing the amount of blue. The result of this was a slightly yellow tint which was the look I wanted to achieve.

At the start of the song I wanted to use a different image for each note of the piano. I used establishing shots and then lingered on a shot of the boy in the denim jacket, letting the audience know subconsciously that he is an important character in the 'story'.

I wanted there to be a balance of 'flashback' and lip-sync footage so the audience would be less likely to get bored. I think i achieved this and also used a good variety of lip-syncing shots. For one transition I used a close-up lip-sync shot of my face which I linked with a mid-shot of me lip-syncing in a field using an extreme closeup of my lips. The reason this transition worked so well is because in all the shots I am wearing red lipstick which creates familiarity nd theefore a more smooth transition.

For some of the song I wanted to take the lyrics literally. For example, for the lyric 'open up a beer' I used an extreme close up of the cap of a beer bottle and for 'play a video game' I used a shot of the start of a game of pac man. This techique helps tie the video to the song.

There is one extremely important shot where the lyrics are 'heaven is a place on earth with you'. In the shot the two characters are lying on a bed and laughing, looking more like best friends than a couple. This is an effetive shot because it suggests how in love the main character is.

I used quite a lot of shots of just the boy as if we are looking at him through the main character's eyes and seeing him how she sees him.

Ancillary Task: Magazine Advert & Analysis

As we were running out of time to take more photos for our magazine advert I decided to instead use a still from our music video.

I chose a closeup of my face because this plays up to the codes and conventions of female artists as Single/Album covers and adverts for female singers are nearly always made up of a closeup.

After I went through the HD video I chose the shot above and used an online photo editor to make my eyes and lips stand out as these are the features we play up in the video.

I then used the online editor to create a rounded-corner effect on the photo as this is considered to be 'vintage' and 'retro'. Whilst playing around with the features of the editing software I came across a 'pattern' feature which allows you to blend your photo with different images. I did think about using a photo of feathers to tie in with the bird theme of our video however when I tried this out It overwhelmed the portrait. I decided on a 'paint splat' background which I thought improved the aesthetics of the photo.

I then added text, using 'retro' styled text for 'Lana Del Rey' to tie it in with the rest of the music video theme. I finished off with adding the song title and also the title of the album. The iTunes and Polydor logos make it look more professional.

The final product:

 

Digipak Designs

We shot these photos at our first filming location with Rachel's iPod Touch. She has a 'Retro Camera' app which really suits the vintage theme of our music video by giving the photos a faded, polaroid camera effect. Although we also intend to do a 'real' photoshoot for the digipak photos/ancillary tasks I thought these photos looked really effective and saw no reason not to use them.

In the first design I liked the photo the way it was so I didn't edit it at all, just added the text over the top. I chose to use faded text on both 'Lana Del Rey' and 'Video Games' because I felt that using solid text would look too severe. I chose this photo because I thought it was a good portrait shot and portrayed the general feel of the video very well. The angle at which the subject's head is turned shows off the 40s hairstyle well. I used red text for 'Video Games' becaue of its connotations with love and also because the red lips are the brightest part of the background photo.

I used this image for a cover design as it reminded me a little of Lana Del Rey's 'Born To Die' single cover:

I made the photo a bit more yellow-tinted in order to make it look like an aged photograph. I was playing around with the text when I came up with the faded 'Lana Del Rey' background. I like it as it's not something i've seen on a CD cover before and is a unique idea.
I used the thin italic font for the song title as it looks quite retro and I chose to use baby blue for it as it clashes with the background photo which makes it easier to see.

Diary of a Day's Shooting: Day 3

I realised we needed to film more closeup lip synching footage as all we had up to this point was long shots. As I am playing the main character in the music video it was easy for me to do this filming on my own with the help of a tripod.
I found a wall with decorative flocked wallpaper in my house and used this as the background. There were initially unwanted objects at the side of the frame but I knew I could crop these out in post-production.
As the only part of my costume showing would be my top I decided on a simple white peter-pan collar blouse. This ensured the colour wouldn't clash with either the turquoise wallpaper or the red lipstick which has been a recurring feature throughout filming.

I filmed myself from the waist up against the flocked wallpaper, lip-synching the whole song so when it came to editing I could pick and choose which part of the song to use that setting for.

After this I decided that an extreme close-up would also be a good idea as facial features would look impressive on the HD camera we used. I went through the same process as before, filming myself lip-synching the whole song but this time with an extreme closeup.

I did this a third and final time but this time with an extreme close up of just my mouth as I lip-synched the song.

Now I have watched the footage back i'm extremely happy with how it has turned out, and i'm  positive it will be an effective addition to our final video.

1st Day Shooting & Options For Digipak

This is the tripod that we are using for our filming at all our locations.

This is an option for the digipak.

This is sophie's dog, marylin, that may be in our music video.

This is the hair style that we will be using throughout our music video. This style has been taken from the 40's era which are known as victory rolls.

This is the lipstick that we will be using. It is the colour red. We have used this particular colour for colour-coding. Red symbolises love which the song is about.

This is a prop that we will be using during filming.

This is also an option for our digipak.

This is an option for our digipak which also shows a change in clothing.

A close up that is an option for our digipak.

Pitch #1

CHANGE OF SONG

When we filmed our footage for our Nero video we used a HD camera, but then when we came to edit at school the software couldn't cope with the higher resolution. By the time the school had installed new software the deadline for both the video and blog was too close for us to possibly make a quality piece of work so we instead have entered our coursework for June 2012.
 We have used this setback to our advantage, and decided to use a different song. 'Promies' by Nero is very fast paced and we thought it would be in our best interests to use a slower song, which would make things like lip synching a lot easier. The song we have chosen to now use is 'Video Games' by Lana Del Rey. Video Games is a love song and is in the 'Pop/Indie Pop' genre.

Filming Schedule

As we only have one day in which to film all the London scenes we have to create a strict schedule as to where we will film at any given time and for how long etc.

1) BRICK LANE
11am. Brick Lane in East London will be our first stop for filming as it's within walking distance of Liverpool Street Station where our train will come in. Brick Lane market day is on Sunday, which is the day we're filming so there will be a really good crowded atmosphere there.

2) ST PAUL'S
St Paul's Cathedral is a really iconic landmark in London so a long shot of the cathedral with one of our main characters running past will fit in with the iconography we want in our video. We will get the central line from Liverpool Street to St Paul's.

3) COVENT GARDEN/ LEICESTER SQUARE

We will get the Central Line from St Paul's to Holborn then change and get the Piccadilly Line to Covent Garden and when we're done filming there walk to Leicester Square. Both these places are tourist destinations when visiting london and so are well known throughout the world.

4) PICCADILLY CIRCUS

Piccadilly Circus is juist a short walk from Leicester Square and is for London what Times Square is for new york. The lights from the neon signs would look really effective in our music video.

5) EMBANKMENT

From Piccadilly Circus we will get the Bakerloo line to Embankment Station. Embankment is obviously next to the river thames and the water will add something else to our video which other people don't have making it more interesting and enjoyable to watch.

6) SOUTH KENSINGTON
From Embankment we will get the District or Circle Line to South Kensington. Kensington is a fashionable, rich area of london and has many large old fashioned terraced houses. This location would contrast well with the more urban settings we are using in the rest of the video.

7) HYDE PARK CORNER
From South Kensington we will get the Piccadilly Line to Hyde Park Corner. Hyde park is one of the largest parks in Central London and will provide a different location to the built-up areas we are using in the rest of the video.

 

Diary of a Day's Shooting

Equipment

Camera

The camera we are using to film our music video is a Panasonic HDC-SD80. The SD80 is an extremely compact camera (you could fit it in your pocket), a trait which will be extremely useful for when we film in London as lugging a lot of heavy equipment on the Underground wouldn't be practical. The camera has 1920x1080 recording capabilities and a 46x zoom along with optical image stabilizer (OIS). On most cameras using the zoom feature results in shaky footage, but OIS means any blurry footage is stabilised.
We decided to use this camera because it is more efficent and also has the latest techonology that will help us produce quality filming. This camera belongs to a member of this team, we didn't use the school camera because other groups may need them whilst we do and also if we brake them, we will have to pay for them. Using a team members camera is more efficent and also the camera is better quality than the one that we have avaliable at school.

Identifying our Focus Group

Our target audience is teenagers and young adults aged 16-25 because we feel this category of people will enjoy the music and video the most. This age group is stereotypically known for going out to clubs and music festivals and so is more likely to appreciate the dance/dubstep/dnb genre of our song.
 For our focus group we are using quota sampling. This means we're choosing people because they meet the criteria of our target audience, so we can specifically gather as much information on it as possible and therefore hone the final product to meet the needs and wants of the group. One weakness of quota sampling is that the ficus group won't be representative of anyone outside the target audience.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is very important to our music video. The reason for this is we have to document anything that could go wrong, the actors and everyone else who is involved need to be safe and we need to do everything in our power to keep everyone safe.

Location: Sophie's Garden
Scene: Girl Miming & Smashing Jars

Although these scenes are only being filmed in a normal garden there are still many things which could go wrong.

• We are using face paint & hair spray on the girl who is miming for us so we need to check with her and make sure she's not allergic to either of them or any of the ingredients.
• As we're filming outside there's always a risk of rain so we'll have to check the forecast and arrange to do it on a clear day.
• In this scene we plan to have the character smashing jars of glitter with a baseball bat/bar of some kind and we'll have to make sure there's no risk of any of us cutting ourselves.
• We will have to be careful that no glitter gets into any of our eyes when the jars are smashed, this could be helped by wearing glasses or goggles.

Location: London
Scenes: Running round London/Homeless People

The majority of our narrative will be filmed in London with the two main characters running around and the homeless people holding up their signs.

• Traffic. London roads are notoriously busy so we'll have to be careful when crossing the road travelling to/from shooting locations. Our plan is to film on quieter streets anyway so this shouldn't be that much of a problem.
• There is more crime in London than where we live so we have to be careful with our equipment etc.
• Whilst we're filming for the running scenes we have to be aware of the people around us and make sure we don't run into anyone or damage anyone's property.

Codes and Conventions of Dubstep/Drum & Bass

Drum & Bass is a type of electronic dance music which originated in London in the 1990s. The genre originally began as an off-shoot of the early 90s rave scene but over the years has gained more fans and morphed into a genre in its own right. Typical characteristics of drum & bass include heavy bass & sub-bass lines which can be physically felt through large and powerful sound systems because of the low range of frequencies. The backbeats form a canvas on which producers can layer tracks to appeal to virtually any taste, making drum & bass very popular in today's music scene. The genre is widely promoted through use of the internet (Youtube, blogs) and radio but gains less exposure on TV. Saying this, TV exposure is growing and drum n bass continues to gain popularity in mainstream music. Pendulum's 2005 album 'Hold Your Colour' is the biggest-selling drum and bass album of all time.
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in London in the late 1990s. The differences between Dubstep and Drum & Bass are that unlike the fast breakbeats of Drum & Bass, Dubstep has a 2step rythm and puts more emphasis on 'dark' basslines as well as wobble bass and popular bass drops. Dubstep is a lot slower then Drum & Bass.

What Is A Music Video?

For our A2 coursework we have chosen to make a music video. A music video is literally a filmed version of a song. A typical video will include images of the artist performing the song and/or clips interpreting the lyrics. Videos are mostly used on music channels (MTV, Kerrang, Q, etc.) when they are seen on the television. This gives the audience something to look at when listening to the song, in turn making the tune more memorable and promoting the artist and their music thus improving their chances of selling more records.

There are different music video characteristics for different genres, for instance there are more likely to be clips of live stage performances in a video for a Rock song than for a Dubstep one.
In these instances, there are expectations from the record company for the director to include a lot of close up shots of the lead singers/artists as this is what the audience wants and expects.

There are sometimes intertextual references in music videos, where there are references to other videos/films or TV texts. This is clearly recognisable in all of Plan B's videos for his singles from his album 'The Defamation of Strickland Banks'. The album follows the fictional story of Plan B's alter-ego Strickland Banks as he finds fame as a soul singer (Love Goes Down, Writings On The Wall, Stay Too Long) but then loses everything when he's accused of and sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit (She Said, Welcome To Hell, Prayin', etc.). The story is played out naturalistically in the music videos from the album, and so they all link in with eachother. The mise en scene is kept the same in all the videos as well as the lighting, which gives the viewer a sense of continuity even though the videos were all filmed at different times. The same actresses are also used to play Strickland's girlfriend (Vicky McClure) and his obsessive one night stand (Kaya Scodelario) which makes the album seem more like a story than just a collection of songs.

Intertextual links are also often present when songs are used as soundtracks to films. Bryan Adams' song 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' features on the soundtrack of 'Robin Hood Prince of Thieves' (1991) and the link is very obvious in the video. There are clips of Adams and his band playing live music in the woods, which symbolises Sherwood Forest, and there are also many clips from the Film played in the Music Video as well. Other examples of this are 'End Credits' by Chase and Status which features in Harry Brown (2009) and 'New Divide' by Linkin Park in Transformers (2007).