Qu1. In What way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?‘Conventions’ is the term used to describe each different factor of a video/media production; similar to stereotypes they lead you towards what type/genre of media production you are watching. For example Alternative rock music videos consist of the following conventions – performance, comedy and a slight narrative. The song we chose (Pacific Ocean Blue by A) fitted with the alternative rock genre so we as a group were able to produce our product around the generic conventions. In our video we tried to use develop and challenge each of the conventions, we used a lot of performance shots which included us playing as a band in different locations (‘the Lock Up – Chesterton’ and ‘Sawston Village College Hall’) and in the same locations us playing our specified instruments singly in close up shots. We developed the comedy convention by massively implementing it, we did this by simply adding more comic shots such as ‘the box shot’ and us dancing with the public. During editing we tried to create the video with as much lip sync as possible while having as many comic shots as possible, this proved quite hard as every point where there was no singing and we wanted to add one of these shots we would find it difficult as we were trying to fit to on of Goodwin’s points ‘Relationship between lyrics and visual’. Our original plan to challenge the narrative convention was also disrupted by this point as we couldn’t leave out the narrative as we would then of missed out the point, to get around this we minimised the relationship between lyrics and visuals which became a very slight narrative. We know that the comic side of our music video worked from the feedback we received on our rough cut and we feel that we fitted our music video to the genre and conventions of alternative rock. Our video meets record label demand by meeting the main characteristics of the alternative rock genre and clearly identifies these points which promote the artists to the audience whom listen to this genre of music. The image the media product creates for the band is one that shows they like to have fun however take their music career seriously, for example throughout the whole video there are shots of us dancing with members of the public and having a fun time, while the rest of the shots show the serious side of the bands performance aspects.Qu2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?Overall we feel that our ancillary tasks and our main product worked quite effectively together. We tried to keep continuity between the two tasks, which I feel we did strongly, however our DVD cover and Magazine advert were very poor in terms of conventions, as we know we have failed to get them to the standard of the Main product. After we handed in our main product we spent too long evaluating it and writing on the Blog and before we knew it the deadline for the ancillary task was two lessons away, we spent one of these lessons taking photos for the task, we didn’t choose stills from our music video as we thought we had none appropriate, so we went to the junction and got permission to take some photos backstage/outside of the venue and we then used these in our Digipak, this still had continuity with our main product as it still had a performance element to it. And the second lesson editing the photos on Photoshop, which concluded on us being very rushed for time. As none of us knew how to use Photoshop effectively this led to us becoming frustrated and effectively ruined our task. As we rushed to finish both the DVD cover and Magazine advert we ended up getting the information wrong and our magazine advert did not advertise our DVD, which it was supposed to of, We could have changed this by planning to spend more time on the task from the start of the project, we could also have included a more detailed description of the band with more dates about tours, more record labels and possibly more ratings. Our three products would all attract our target audience in different ways, our music video would be played on music channels/on the internet and would attract an audience practically via them listening and watching. While our Magazine covers would grab the attention of the readers and get them to find our band name/the visuals of our band familiar when they see our DVD in the shops. The three tasks work together to promote the band via showing the performance and comic side to us. showing that we like to have fun as well as taking our music seriously conforming to the alternative rock genre.
Qu3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?Our Audience feedback was very helpful and because of the feedback (from our teacher, class/group and some other members of our year whom are also taking media) we received on our rough cut, which we posted on our Blog we were able to perfect our final piece. For example, the feed back we received on our rough cut told us that our sense of comedy was noted which was good news to us as we were worried that it would only be us who found the shots funny due to the fact that we all knew each other, and that we needed to include more close ups as we literally didn’t have any which meant there was little lip syncing and the band was not very well advertised this was the only criticism. To combat this we went back to one of our performance area’s ‘The Lock Up’ and filmed close ups of each band member playing their instruments/Singing under many different filters of light and at many angles, which we then added into our final production using final cut. Feed back on the development of our final production after we had received the feedback on the rough cut then told us that we had improved our video drastically that the lip syncing was much improved and that overall we were now selling the band much more than previous. The feedback on our final product was very strong apart from on the ancillary tasks but we knew we had messed up on that part of the project, are feedback was not very strong for our ancillary task and there were many ways we could have improved it, for starters spending more time on it and adjusting the appearance to make it more eye catching. And should we be asked to produce a similar task again I would make sure for the first lesson the whole group write a plan of all the deadlines and what needs to be done in what order and the whole group stick to it as I feel this is where we failed to compete.Qu4. How did you use new media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stages?During the planning and evaluating stages of this production we used many new media technologies, including Blogger.com which was a massive contribution to this stage of the music video, as we were able to plan it in college and at home by posting all of our brain storms, ideas, final plans and generally all contributions to the video in terms of planning, we found this very useful as it meant we were able to continue working on our product with easy access to all of our class work and it also meant we wouldn’t have to remember any ideas you had for the product should you think of them while your at home (e.g. while your watching a music channel on TV) you could just type them down onto the Blog. As part of our assignment it was asked that we try and get permission by someone relevant to the band, to produce a music video to the song (it didn’t matter if we didn’t receive a reply but we had to show that we had tried), we found an email on twitter.com which led us to the band manager ‘Jason Perry’ whom to our surprise replied to our e-mail and gave us permission to create a music video to the song. We used more, different media technology through the construction and research stages of the assignment; during research we again used blogger.com to note down our finds and post our work/ rough cuts etc which led us to be able to receive feedback and gave us a bigger foothold to create and evaluate the productions, google.com to research Digipaks for our ancillary tasks which proved very helpful for finding the conventions of alternative rock Digipaks (Similar to video conventions – more of a narrative photo of whole band after/during performance) and youtube.com which we used to sample videos of alternative rock production, as our song currently has no music video (that we could find) we based our video on videos by such alternative rock bands such as ‘Blink 182’ and ‘Sum 41’. These bands led us to finding the perfect conventions to make stand out in our production via looking at their more successful songs, which led us to a more performance and comic convention rather than a narrative. We also used the programmes ‘Final Cut’ and ‘Photoshop’ to create our whole Assignment, final cut was the programme we used to create the video, our skills have improved over the time we have been studying media and we were able to use the effectively to create a strong video including lip syncing, filters and small effects such as fades in/out. Photoshop was used only for the Digipak, which unfortunately none of our group knew how to use despite all of us been doing media for at least fifteen months. We used Photoshop for its layering of images and its many effects, sadly we only had one lesson to finalise our Digipak and due to our lack of knowledge around the programme we were unable to produce a strong piece, and out of the whole project I feel we let ourselves down on the ancillary task. To combat this problem next time I suggest that we either commit to spending more time on the programmes we do not know much about. Or we could take the time out (e.g. after lesson) to learn our way around the problems we do not know how to fix with the programmes. Our preliminary task was also very helpful in the technology side of this production, it helped us to remember the skills we has picked up In the previous year of media and allowed us to begin developing them for our main assignment, this was very helpful in all areas especially editing in final cut, as we were able to apply what we knew and then experiment with fades in/out etc in practice for our final product. Overall I feel we created a really strong media product and an effective assignment.
Showing posts with label Scott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Scott - Evaluation
Qu1. In What way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
‘Conventions’ is the term used to describe each different factor of a video/media production; similar to stereotypes they lead you towards what type/genre of media production you are watching. For example Alternative rock music videos consist of the following conventions – performance, comedy and a slight narrative. The song we chose (Pacific Ocean Blue by A) fitted with the alternative rock genre so we as a group were able to produce our product around the generic conventions. In our video we tried to use develop and challenge each of the conventions, we used a lot of performance shots which included us playing as a band in different locations (‘the Lock Up – Chesterton’ and ‘Sawston Village College Hall’) and in the same locations us playing our specified instruments singly in close up shots. We developed the comedy convention by massively implementing it, we did this by simply adding more comic shots such as ‘the box shot’ and us dancing with the public. During editing we tried to create the video with as much lip sync as possible while having as many comic shots as possible, this proved quite hard as every point where there was no singing and we wanted to add one of these shots we would find it difficult as we were trying to fit to on of Goodwin’s points ‘Relationship between lyrics and visual’. Our original plan to challenge the narrative convention was also disrupted by this point as we couldn’t leave out the narrative as we would then of missed out the point, to get around this we minimised the relationship between lyrics and visuals which became a very slight narrative. We know that the comic side of our music video worked from the feedback we received on our rough cut and we feel that we fitted our music video to the genre and conventions of alternative rock.
Qu2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
Overall we feel that our ancillary tasks and our main product worked quite effectively together. We tried to keep continuity between the two tasks, which I feel we did strongly, however our DVD cover and Magazine advert were very poor in terms of conventions, as we know we have failed to get them to the standard of the Main product. After we handed in our main product we spent too long evaluating it and writing on the Blog and before we knew it the deadline for the ancillary task was two lessons away, we spent one of these lessons taking photos for the task and the second lesson editing the photos on Photoshop, which concluded on us being very rushed for time. As none of us knew how to use Photoshop effectively this led to us becoming frustrated and effectively ruined our task. As we rushed to finish both the DVD cover and Magazine advert we ended up getting the information wrong and our magazine advert did not advertise our DVD, which it was supposed to of, We could have changed this by planning to spend more time on the task from the start of the project.
Qu3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Our Audience feedback was very helpful and because of the feedback we received on our rough cut, which we posted on our Blog we were able to perfect our final piece. For example, the feed back we received on our rough cut told us that our sense of comedy was noted which was good news to us as we were worried that it would only be us who found the shots funny due to the fact that we all knew each other, and that we needed to include more close ups as we literally didn’t have any which meant there was little lip syncing and the band was not very well advertised. To combat this we went back to one of our performance area’s ‘The Lock Up’ and filmed close ups of each band member playing their instruments/Singing under many different filters of light and at many angles, which we then added into our final production using final cut. Feed back on the development of our final production after we had received the feedback on the rough cut then told us that we had improved our video drastically that the lip syncing was much improved and that overall we were now selling the band much more than previous. The feedback on our final product was very strong (apart from on the ancillary tasks but we knew we had messed up on that part of the project) and should we be asked to produce a similar task again I would make sure for the first lesson the whole group write a plan of all the deadlines and what needs to be done in what order and the whole group stick to it as I feel this is where we failed to compete.
Qu4. How did you use new media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stages?
During the planning and evaluating stages of this production we used many new media technologies, including Blogger.com which was a massive contribution to this stage of the music video, as we were able to plan it in college and at home by posting all of our brain storms, ideas, final plans and generally all contributions to the video in terms of planning, we found this very useful as it meant we were able to continue working on our product with easy access to all of our class work and it also meant we wouldn’t have to remember any ideas you had for the product should you think of them while your at home (e.g. while your watching a music channel on TV) you could just type them down onto the Blog. As part of our assignment it was asked that we try and get permission by someone relevant to the band, to produce a music video to the song (it didn’t matter if we didn’t receive a reply but we had to show that we had tried), we found an email on twitter.com which led us to the band manager ‘Jason Perry’ whom to our surprise replied to our e-mail and gave us permission to create a music video to the song. We used more, different media technology through the construction and research stages of the assignment; during research we again used blogger.com to note down our finds and post our work/ rough cuts etc which led us to be able to receive feedback and gave us a bigger foothold to create and evaluate the productions, google.com to research Digipaks for our ancillary tasks which proved very helpful for finding the conventions of alternative rock Digipaks (Similar to video conventions – more of a narrative photo of whole band after/during performance) and youtube.com which we used to sample videos of alternative rock production, as our song currently has no music video (that we could find) we based our video on videos by such alternative rock bands such as ‘Blink 182’ and ‘Sum 41’. These bands led us to finding the perfect conventions to make stand out in our production via looking at their more successful songs, which led us to a more performance and comic convention rather than a narrative. We also used the programmes ‘Final Cut’ and ‘Photoshop’ to create our whole Assignment, final cut was the programme we used to create the video, our skills have improved over the time we have been studying media and we were able to use the effectively to create a strong video including lip syncing, filters and small effects such as fades in/out. Photoshop was used only for the Digipak, which unfortunately none of our group knew how to use despite all of us been doing media for at least fifteen months. We used Photoshop for its layering of images and its many effects, sadly we only had one lesson to finalise our Digipak and due to our lack of knowledge around the programme we were unable to produce a strong piece, and out of the whole project I feel we let ourselves down on the ancillary task. To combat this problem next time I suggest that we either commit to spending more time on the programmes we do not know much about. Or we could take the time out (e.g. after lesson) to learn our way around the problems we do not know how to fix with the programmes. However overall I feel we created a really strong media product and an effective assignment.
‘Conventions’ is the term used to describe each different factor of a video/media production; similar to stereotypes they lead you towards what type/genre of media production you are watching. For example Alternative rock music videos consist of the following conventions – performance, comedy and a slight narrative. The song we chose (Pacific Ocean Blue by A) fitted with the alternative rock genre so we as a group were able to produce our product around the generic conventions. In our video we tried to use develop and challenge each of the conventions, we used a lot of performance shots which included us playing as a band in different locations (‘the Lock Up – Chesterton’ and ‘Sawston Village College Hall’) and in the same locations us playing our specified instruments singly in close up shots. We developed the comedy convention by massively implementing it, we did this by simply adding more comic shots such as ‘the box shot’ and us dancing with the public. During editing we tried to create the video with as much lip sync as possible while having as many comic shots as possible, this proved quite hard as every point where there was no singing and we wanted to add one of these shots we would find it difficult as we were trying to fit to on of Goodwin’s points ‘Relationship between lyrics and visual’. Our original plan to challenge the narrative convention was also disrupted by this point as we couldn’t leave out the narrative as we would then of missed out the point, to get around this we minimised the relationship between lyrics and visuals which became a very slight narrative. We know that the comic side of our music video worked from the feedback we received on our rough cut and we feel that we fitted our music video to the genre and conventions of alternative rock.
Qu2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
Overall we feel that our ancillary tasks and our main product worked quite effectively together. We tried to keep continuity between the two tasks, which I feel we did strongly, however our DVD cover and Magazine advert were very poor in terms of conventions, as we know we have failed to get them to the standard of the Main product. After we handed in our main product we spent too long evaluating it and writing on the Blog and before we knew it the deadline for the ancillary task was two lessons away, we spent one of these lessons taking photos for the task and the second lesson editing the photos on Photoshop, which concluded on us being very rushed for time. As none of us knew how to use Photoshop effectively this led to us becoming frustrated and effectively ruined our task. As we rushed to finish both the DVD cover and Magazine advert we ended up getting the information wrong and our magazine advert did not advertise our DVD, which it was supposed to of, We could have changed this by planning to spend more time on the task from the start of the project.
Qu3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Our Audience feedback was very helpful and because of the feedback we received on our rough cut, which we posted on our Blog we were able to perfect our final piece. For example, the feed back we received on our rough cut told us that our sense of comedy was noted which was good news to us as we were worried that it would only be us who found the shots funny due to the fact that we all knew each other, and that we needed to include more close ups as we literally didn’t have any which meant there was little lip syncing and the band was not very well advertised. To combat this we went back to one of our performance area’s ‘The Lock Up’ and filmed close ups of each band member playing their instruments/Singing under many different filters of light and at many angles, which we then added into our final production using final cut. Feed back on the development of our final production after we had received the feedback on the rough cut then told us that we had improved our video drastically that the lip syncing was much improved and that overall we were now selling the band much more than previous. The feedback on our final product was very strong (apart from on the ancillary tasks but we knew we had messed up on that part of the project) and should we be asked to produce a similar task again I would make sure for the first lesson the whole group write a plan of all the deadlines and what needs to be done in what order and the whole group stick to it as I feel this is where we failed to compete.
Qu4. How did you use new media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stages?
During the planning and evaluating stages of this production we used many new media technologies, including Blogger.com which was a massive contribution to this stage of the music video, as we were able to plan it in college and at home by posting all of our brain storms, ideas, final plans and generally all contributions to the video in terms of planning, we found this very useful as it meant we were able to continue working on our product with easy access to all of our class work and it also meant we wouldn’t have to remember any ideas you had for the product should you think of them while your at home (e.g. while your watching a music channel on TV) you could just type them down onto the Blog. As part of our assignment it was asked that we try and get permission by someone relevant to the band, to produce a music video to the song (it didn’t matter if we didn’t receive a reply but we had to show that we had tried), we found an email on twitter.com which led us to the band manager ‘Jason Perry’ whom to our surprise replied to our e-mail and gave us permission to create a music video to the song. We used more, different media technology through the construction and research stages of the assignment; during research we again used blogger.com to note down our finds and post our work/ rough cuts etc which led us to be able to receive feedback and gave us a bigger foothold to create and evaluate the productions, google.com to research Digipaks for our ancillary tasks which proved very helpful for finding the conventions of alternative rock Digipaks (Similar to video conventions – more of a narrative photo of whole band after/during performance) and youtube.com which we used to sample videos of alternative rock production, as our song currently has no music video (that we could find) we based our video on videos by such alternative rock bands such as ‘Blink 182’ and ‘Sum 41’. These bands led us to finding the perfect conventions to make stand out in our production via looking at their more successful songs, which led us to a more performance and comic convention rather than a narrative. We also used the programmes ‘Final Cut’ and ‘Photoshop’ to create our whole Assignment, final cut was the programme we used to create the video, our skills have improved over the time we have been studying media and we were able to use the effectively to create a strong video including lip syncing, filters and small effects such as fades in/out. Photoshop was used only for the Digipak, which unfortunately none of our group knew how to use despite all of us been doing media for at least fifteen months. We used Photoshop for its layering of images and its many effects, sadly we only had one lesson to finalise our Digipak and due to our lack of knowledge around the programme we were unable to produce a strong piece, and out of the whole project I feel we let ourselves down on the ancillary task. To combat this problem next time I suggest that we either commit to spending more time on the programmes we do not know much about. Or we could take the time out (e.g. after lesson) to learn our way around the problems we do not know how to fix with the programmes. However overall I feel we created a really strong media product and an effective assignment.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Evaluation 'POA'
Today it is up to us to create a plan of action for the production of our music video's commentary. We have this lesson to plan it, next lesson to film it and then two more lessons to edit the piece. Below is our plan of action.
We plan to have the four of us introduced individually, we plan to do this by having a short clip of each of us talking (a sentence or two about the music video) with our name on screen, then the clip will to all the four of us together in a room and we will answer the questions for the evaluation in a casual group discussion similar to a group interview.
Q 1: In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- Talk about 'Blink 182s' influence from their video 'Rock Show'
- Audience for alternative rock videos
- performance and lifestyle element of video
- we stuck to genre conventions
- how choices we made led to our final media product
- Goodwins theory and points that we used
Q 2: How effective is the combination of our ancillary task and our main product?
- how mise-en-scene was key to getting the photos relative
- our opinions on the DVD and Magazine covers
- representation and selling of artists
Q 3: What have you leant from audience feedback?
- open for discussion, talk about our camera work (Lack of close ups) etc.
- ability to communicate
- how we overcame these problems
Q 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research planning and in the evaluation stages?
- how we have developed skills on final cut, photoshop and blog use
- how we uploaded examples of our genre from existing products via 'youtube' etc
- camerawork
We plan to have the four of us introduced individually, we plan to do this by having a short clip of each of us talking (a sentence or two about the music video) with our name on screen, then the clip will to all the four of us together in a room and we will answer the questions for the evaluation in a casual group discussion similar to a group interview.
Q 1: In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- Talk about 'Blink 182s' influence from their video 'Rock Show'
- Audience for alternative rock videos
- performance and lifestyle element of video
- we stuck to genre conventions
- how choices we made led to our final media product
- Goodwins theory and points that we used
Q 2: How effective is the combination of our ancillary task and our main product?
- how mise-en-scene was key to getting the photos relative
- our opinions on the DVD and Magazine covers
- representation and selling of artists
Q 3: What have you leant from audience feedback?
- open for discussion, talk about our camera work (Lack of close ups) etc.
- ability to communicate
- how we overcame these problems
Q 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research planning and in the evaluation stages?
- how we have developed skills on final cut, photoshop and blog use
- how we uploaded examples of our genre from existing products via 'youtube' etc
- camerawork
Thursday, 19 November 2009
DVD Cover Ideas
For our Digi pack we need to include a DVD cover and a magazine advertisement, above is the Album cover for busted. We chose this band because we feel they conform to the traditional rock formality, although we are aware that our msic video is alternative rock and Busted are more pop rock we still feel their Digi pack is appropriate to use as guidelines for ours.To grab the viewers attention we need to:
- Include bright and catching colours
- Include good reviews from well known Critics i.e MTV etc.
To advertise the product we need to include:
- A Brand name
- A Release date
- Where it canbe purchased
- And official website such as a myspace or facebook page
- A Label with a good reputation
Extra Features that could be included would be:
- Promotional videos
- Bonus tracks
- Live Footage
- Tour Info
- Ratings
- Behind the scenes Photos and footage.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
After Hours Editing
Today our whole group came into college after hours to try and catch up with our editing. We started by sorting all of our good usable footage from our poor footage, once we had done this we started to lip sync our video. By placing markers on the actual song we were able to clearly see where each of the chorus' start and the distinctive lyrics. then we did the same with the video (still attached to audio) and simply lined them. We have sped up the footage of all four band members climbing out of a box to hide the jumps were each person climbs in (camera has been paused while recording for this). Tomorrow we hope to perfect this for our final deadline on monday. When we will hopefully begin our digipacks [Albums and DVD cover].
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Test Footage 2 (scott wrote this)
After evaluating our existing footage and our feedback from our teacher and other groups, we felt it necessary to obtain more band shots and close ups. Consequently we ventured around long road and found a secluded location and set to filming.
We feel these shots may be used to fill some of our gaps and will help to build our band image and could be evolved in our digi pack. Our footage includes us walking down a set of stairs (leaving the stage) at several different angles which evolves continuity. And a continuous shot of all four band members climbing out of a box as if we were all in there together.
Monday, 2 November 2009
Evaluating our Rough Cut
Goodwins Points
We felt that our music video complimented the genre characteristics of Alternative Rock. The amalgamation of performance footage and the collage of dance routines gives an effective use of genre characteristics. At this stage of the editing process, the majority of our footage is lip synced with the music from our lead singer.
Other relationships between music and lyrics include the drummer playing through the line "Its okay to beat the living shit from the drum kit". We aim to improve the relationship by filming the footage we were unable to on our third day of our filming and therefore incorporate it in our music video. Currently, our relationship between music and visuals is quite strong. The lip syncing and synchronized instruments give an effective relationship, however most of the footage is not edited to the beat, this is because we're only at the rough cut stage of our editing.
Our music video definitely sells the artist. There is a large amount of voyeurism as all the artists address the camera during the performance and this gives an impression that they are looking at the viewer. Finally, our intertextuality is from Blink 182 but we feel that we avoided the conventions of this music video when we filmed ours. We focused more on the performance aspect of the music video.
We felt that our music video complimented the genre characteristics of Alternative Rock. The amalgamation of performance footage and the collage of dance routines gives an effective use of genre characteristics. At this stage of the editing process, the majority of our footage is lip synced with the music from our lead singer.
Other relationships between music and lyrics include the drummer playing through the line "Its okay to beat the living shit from the drum kit". We aim to improve the relationship by filming the footage we were unable to on our third day of our filming and therefore incorporate it in our music video. Currently, our relationship between music and visuals is quite strong. The lip syncing and synchronized instruments give an effective relationship, however most of the footage is not edited to the beat, this is because we're only at the rough cut stage of our editing.
Our music video definitely sells the artist. There is a large amount of voyeurism as all the artists address the camera during the performance and this gives an impression that they are looking at the viewer. Finally, our intertextuality is from Blink 182 but we feel that we avoided the conventions of this music video when we filmed ours. We focused more on the performance aspect of the music video.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Very Very Rough Cut
Obviously we have a lot of work to do, as we had to just put in some footage at the end as we didnt have enough time in lesson to complete it. We also need to capture more footage to have a wider shot variety, and more close ups of the vocalist to try and sekk the artist. We really just need more close ups all together.
Second Day of editing
Today we've had our second lesson of editing. So far we've managed to cut down our footage to all the main clips we're going to be using and sorted them into some kind of order. We've got about 2 minutes of rough cut ready to be submitted and the rest we can sort out next lesson. We're yet to add any effects to our piece and sync any instruments and lip syncing with our music.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Ideas For Editing
Our music video is being produced using thematic editing techniques. A rapid montage of disconnected footage collects to communicate feelings rather than a narrative. The fast paced nature of the video should maintain the attention of a viewer, rather than allowing uninteresting footage to progressively lose the focus of a viewer. The image below shows part of the editing process, in which we are gradually arranging the footage we've approved to fit the criteria of thematic editing.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Filming: Day Three
In todays filming we managed to accomplish all the necessary shots to form a collage of performance footage with the clips we've got from other days of filming. The dolly proved itself useful and we captured some great movements which really promote the artists and give a professional edge to the music video. However, there were some major problems with todays filming. Firstly, the tripod didn't fit the dolly! This made capturing the movement shots particularly difficult and required two cameramen as a posed to one. Unfortunately this wasted valuable time from the recording process and overall less was achieved in todays filming. Another problem we faced today was that the battery for the camera was empty when we came to film. We were expecting to do some additional shots besides the filming at Sawston Village College. We had arrived at a river an hour before we were expected at Sawston and we were going to film Scott and George jumping into a river which was going to be our final shot. However when we got there the battery on the camera was out of battery and we couldnt film anything. As well as this the equipment available to us at Sawston was a lot less than we had hoped for for example there were no microphones, no guitars and we had to find drum sticks and symbols for the drums. It would have been helpful for us to know a bit more information before we had gone for the shooting day, as it could have looked a lot more proffessional.
Our next shooting is of the band. It will take place on the Long Road Sixth Form College site and we will use the pictures obtained to produce our digipack. We need to arrange a day and time for this shoot.
Before arriving on site, all group members had to be 'briefed' with the sites Health and Safety Procedure, which is pictured below. Also, the hier had to sign and date the lettings agreement which show my complience with the regulations and obligations within the college site.
Our next shooting is of the band. It will take place on the Long Road Sixth Form College site and we will use the pictures obtained to produce our digipack. We need to arrange a day and time for this shoot.
Before arriving on site, all group members had to be 'briefed' with the sites Health and Safety Procedure, which is pictured below. Also, the hier had to sign and date the lettings agreement which show my complience with the regulations and obligations within the college site.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Location Report
Location Report: Sawston Village College
After gathering ideas for possible locations it was our next task to select the most suitable places for our filming. For the stage performance we agreed either Sawston Village College or Hills Road Sixth Form College would be most suitable for our music video. Sawston VC would be easier to access, after insurance and legal issues, because me, Karl and Scott are all ex-pupils of the college and those who attended the college are favoured over people trying to access the site without a history within the college. After visiting both locations earlier in the production process, we compared the following checklists to see which would be best suited for our music video.
The image above is a copy of the location report we took to The Robinson Theatre. We judged various elements of the theatre space from the lighting in the theatre to the slots that were available which corresponded with the deadlines assigned to this task. Unfortunately, there was no time available for our recording of the music video before Monday 19th October 2009. This meant this performance space was not currently available for the recording of our music video.
Fortunately, the performance area at Sawston Village College was much better suited for our recording. This meant we were't struggling for an area to shoot the performance aspect of our video. The following picture shows a copy of the location report we took the 'Henry Morris Hall'.
After gathering ideas for possible locations it was our next task to select the most suitable places for our filming. For the stage performance we agreed either Sawston Village College or Hills Road Sixth Form College would be most suitable for our music video. Sawston VC would be easier to access, after insurance and legal issues, because me, Karl and Scott are all ex-pupils of the college and those who attended the college are favoured over people trying to access the site without a history within the college. After visiting both locations earlier in the production process, we compared the following checklists to see which would be best suited for our music video.
The image above is a copy of the location report we took to The Robinson Theatre. We judged various elements of the theatre space from the lighting in the theatre to the slots that were available which corresponded with the deadlines assigned to this task. Unfortunately, there was no time available for our recording of the music video before Monday 19th October 2009. This meant this performance space was not currently available for the recording of our music video.Fortunately, the performance area at Sawston Village College was much better suited for our recording. This meant we were't struggling for an area to shoot the performance aspect of our video. The following picture shows a copy of the location report we took the 'Henry Morris Hall'.
In conclusion, for Location One, Sawston Village College is the most appropriate yet accessable location for shooting this section of our music video. The first stage in arranging the theatre for our music video was seeking permission from those incharge of the performance area. We started by emailing the admission office on site at Sawston VC who could steer us in the direction of the person in command of sanctioning our use of the stage, this was Lesley Morgan. We emailed Lesley Morgan asking for her approval in this matter. The email is shown in the following image:
In response, Lesley Morgan submitted our request to the School Manager and College Principal, who contacted us with their approval in the request. Next, we had to contact the theatres approved lighting technician that could supervise our recording and arrange the lighting plan appropriately to our video. Finally, we had to arrange a flexable time that was suitable for both Steve Williams (light technician) all members of Group 48, an on site caretaker for supervisional purposes and a time that didn't conflict with college activities. Overall, we settled with Thursday 15th October 2009 at 16:30. Then, we had to check if a college drumkit was availble for use on Thursday 15th October. This would make the transfering of musical instruments easier. Luckily, we obtained verbal permission from Janet Macleod, Head of Music Department at SVC, to use a college drumkit for our performance at the time and date specified above.
In light of all the communication with the college, we were allowed to obtain some still images of the area we had booked so we could plan, in further detail, the positioning and types of shots we were to use in the performance, and any other information we needed to make our recording problem-free. The images we took are shown below.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Pacific Ocean Blue Lyrics
In order for us to fit our production to Goodwin's points of analysis we need to be aware of the lyrics, in Bold are the lines we will be implementing to our video:-
It's OK to beat the living shit from the drum kit
[Drummer Plays Drums Intensely]
It's OK to take what you don't have, if you want it
That's alright, that's your way
Water's cold, December, Del Ray
Through those eyes, made me cry
[Close up of an eye with a stick coming towards it]
And the summer is forever
It's the endless summer
And it's not about your girlfriend
And it's not about your boyfriend
[iStop Motion of boyfriend and girlfriend moving closer together on a bench]
And I'm not about to lose it over you
Remember what I told ya
The night in California
And I'm all about Pacific Ocean Blue
It's OK to leave your jacket on in the ocean
It's OK to sing the saddest song, Vibrations
Thanks a lot, you can be
What you want, honestly
Magic days, golden nights
And the summer is forever
It's the endless summer
And it's not about your girlfriend
And it's not about your boyfriend
[iStop Motion of boyfriend and girlfriend moving closer together on a bench]
And I'm not about to lose it over you
Remember what I told ya
The night in California
And I'm all about Pacific Ocean Blue
I don't need no explanation
All I got is best intentions
I got fears, too much to mention
You're not there, when I'm scared, terrified
Jump right in, the water's fine.
[All 4 members of the band jumping into water, either river or swimming pool (depending on weather)]
[Drummer Plays Drums Intensely]
It's OK to take what you don't have, if you want it
That's alright, that's your way
Water's cold, December, Del Ray
Through those eyes, made me cry
[Close up of an eye with a stick coming towards it]
And the summer is forever
It's the endless summer
And it's not about your girlfriend
And it's not about your boyfriend
[iStop Motion of boyfriend and girlfriend moving closer together on a bench]
And I'm not about to lose it over you
Remember what I told ya
The night in California
And I'm all about Pacific Ocean Blue
It's OK to leave your jacket on in the ocean
It's OK to sing the saddest song, Vibrations
Thanks a lot, you can be
What you want, honestly
Magic days, golden nights
And the summer is forever
It's the endless summer
And it's not about your girlfriend
And it's not about your boyfriend
[iStop Motion of boyfriend and girlfriend moving closer together on a bench]
And I'm not about to lose it over you
Remember what I told ya
The night in California
And I'm all about Pacific Ocean Blue
I don't need no explanation
All I got is best intentions
I got fears, too much to mention
You're not there, when I'm scared, terrified
Jump right in, the water's fine.
[All 4 members of the band jumping into water, either river or swimming pool (depending on weather)]
For those lyrics that are not in bold we will performing to the camera with shots including:
- The Band On Stage
- The Band Playing In A Garage
- Street Performances
- The Band On Stage
- The Band Playing In A Garage
- Street Performances
Shot List
The following table gives a little detail about the different shot types, shot positioning and any other relevent information. This table will prove itself useful when we start our filming process because its a written explanation of what we will need (props/costumes) to aquire before we start the filming so that we're not delayed or postpone the next stage of our production.
The first collumn (labelled 'Shot No') gives an idea of the order of the shots. One being the first shot used at the begining of the video, and 40 being the final shot used at the end of the track. Each number establishes the shot frame used and the purpose of the shot. In the last collumn there is also an option of Location One and Location Two.
Location One is set in the Henry Morris Hall at Sawston Village College. In this location we will be performing the song to the camera and the footage captured will be distributed throughout the video, so that there is variation with the video. The costumes will be different in each location so that in the final cut of the entire video, our costumes will alternate and show off different fashion icons. This is a very conventional technique of an alternative rock music video as the artists like to look their best and show that they look good in different clothes. In the first location there are the obvious props that haven't been mentioned on the Shot List, such as musical instruments. The drum kit will be booked along with the stage and lighting rig, however the other instruments will be brought in by the other members of the group. We hope not to use any audio cables on stage, this makes the artists movement less restricted and also they're unncessesary due to the fact that we're not aiming to broadcast the music, simply mime it. Although, a few cables might be placed around the area or plugged into the instruments to give the impression that this footage was taken at a live performance.
Location Two is very different and much more vague. It will be around Cambridge and where ever we find members of the public willing to dance for the camera. Some decided places will be the Granchester river and Jesus Green/Midsummer Common where a bench is available to shoot the scene between two lovers. These green areas are shown below.
Midsummer Common
Jesus Green
Other locations include 'The Garage' and 'The Skate Park', these are not mentioned because we are still investigating their availability and producing ideas for shot techniques that could be used at these places.
Music Video Storyboard Timeline
This time line is just to back up which part of the videos go where, again we will use this for a rough guideline so we know what to do when we are filming to get it done efficiently.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Contacting the Band
This is a copy of the email sent to Jason Perry, lead singer of 'Pacific Ocean Blue'. He was also the song writer and record producer for A. We wrote to him ask permission to use this track in our music video.
Dear Mr J. Perry
We, in order of importance (George Baglin, Scott Lansdale, Karl Lambourne, Josef James) are writing are writing to seek permission to use the track "Pacific Ocean Blue" by the band 'A' for our advanced media Production Project here at Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge. As part of our course we have been instructed to plan/film/edit and produce a music video from a selection of songs from different music genres. Consequently, we chose Pacific Ocean Blue as our track and therefore would appreciate your approval in using this song.
Long Road Media: Group 48
This is Jason Perry's response.
Dear Mr J. PerryWe, in order of importance (George Baglin, Scott Lansdale, Karl Lambourne, Josef James) are writing are writing to seek permission to use the track "Pacific Ocean Blue" by the band 'A' for our advanced media Production Project here at Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge. As part of our course we have been instructed to plan/film/edit and produce a music video from a selection of songs from different music genres. Consequently, we chose Pacific Ocean Blue as our track and therefore would appreciate your approval in using this song.
Long Road Media: Group 48
This is Jason Perry's response.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Magazine Adverts
All these adverts differentiate from each other and give us an idea of just how broader range of magazine adverts they can be, and how they each can achieve different things.For example the darker colours on the first poster could reflect the genre or meaning behind the album. its not particularly eye catching but the illustrations are definitely the vocal point of the poster, and could attract current fans.
This is in complete contrast to the last poster which is bright and quite bold, its definately eye catching and the illustration would entertain the audience. the text is quite bold noting the tour dates so you could say the text is the vocal point.
These adverts give us ideas of what we could do with ours when we come to make it and what different techniques could achieve different things to make it attractive to the audience.
Our ideas for the magazine advert would be to have the picture as the vocal of the piece. We would carry this out onto our dvd cover as well for a running theme easily recognized. The photo will be memorable or just funny again so the audience wont forget it in a hurry. We aim to use brighter colours for the magazine advert but we are undesided for the DVD cover at the moment.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos
Point One - Genre Characteristics
The genre of 'Pacific Ocean' by A is very much Alternative Rock. Characteristics of this genre often include a live performance and sometimes the camera follows the artists in their day-to-day life. This promotes the artists and their 'hometown' as where they live is important to their music. We aim to mimic the genre characteristics of an alternative rock music video in order to make a conventional yet abstract narrative.
Point Two - Relationship between lyrics and visuals
Bands in our genre, such as Sum41 and The Kooks, often use subtle relationships between lyrics and visuals. For example, this image from Sum41's video 'Into Deep' the lyrics are 'Bending over backwards'. We endeavor to illustrate the lyrics by filming what is being said.
Point Three - Relationship between music and visuals
Quite obviously a lot of music videos illustrate the instruments by performing. We will film the performance of the song and therefore we will be incorporating visuals of the music.
Point Four - Need to sell the artist
Simply, for this point we will have huge amounts of footage of the band. By the end of the video the band will be recognizable and noticeable under their title.
Point Five - Intertextuality
We aim to reference Jackass in our video, in that the uneven filming and entertaining footage will correspond.
Point Six - Voyeurism
Our artists will constantly be watching the camera. The shot below, used in Lee Evans XL Tour emphasis's the idea that it is a live, stage performance. Our artists will follow the camera as they perform.
The genre of 'Pacific Ocean' by A is very much Alternative Rock. Characteristics of this genre often include a live performance and sometimes the camera follows the artists in their day-to-day life. This promotes the artists and their 'hometown' as where they live is important to their music. We aim to mimic the genre characteristics of an alternative rock music video in order to make a conventional yet abstract narrative.
Point Two - Relationship between lyrics and visuals
Bands in our genre, such as Sum41 and The Kooks, often use subtle relationships between lyrics and visuals. For example, this image from Sum41's video 'Into Deep' the lyrics are 'Bending over backwards'. We endeavor to illustrate the lyrics by filming what is being said.
Point Three - Relationship between music and visualsQuite obviously a lot of music videos illustrate the instruments by performing. We will film the performance of the song and therefore we will be incorporating visuals of the music.
Point Four - Need to sell the artist
Simply, for this point we will have huge amounts of footage of the band. By the end of the video the band will be recognizable and noticeable under their title.
Point Five - Intertextuality
We aim to reference Jackass in our video, in that the uneven filming and entertaining footage will correspond.
Point Six - Voyeurism
Our artists will constantly be watching the camera. The shot below, used in Lee Evans XL Tour emphasis's the idea that it is a live, stage performance. Our artists will follow the camera as they perform.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Pacific Ocean by A
For our music video we are taking inspiration from another video by Blink-182 called "The Rock Show", although we wont have their budget we intent to give the audience entertaining images in an abstract narrative. Our song fits the same genre as this video also and it fits Goodwin's theory of analysis well. Strongly linking the need to sell the artist.
Here is a link to the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxhl-xV0UOs
The concept of filming the lifestyle of an artist is stereotypical of alternative rock. We aim to portray the amusing antics of our 'band' in our music video, similarly to the video to The Rock Show. Coincidently, this video also incorporates the performance aspect of an alternative rock band, however, we intend to portray our performance on a stage. Suggesting the artists are performing to a live audience.
So our ideas really to include lots of random clips to make the audience laugh or just enjoy the spontaneous factors of the video to fit with the song, as the upbeat tempo of the song will allow us to fit the music with short bits of footage throughout.
We plan to have varying locations, like town/shops to mess around in which you could link the Avril Lavigne video = Complicated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGXYAJoDWCk.
We will use parallel editing to switch between footage of the performance and various clips of the band. The image below shows the layout of the stage performance we are after. Test footage will later show the stage we're using and the camera angles and movement we hope to achieve.
Our situations will be random, and they wont really link, the only thing that will link the clips together will be the inclusion of the same members in most if not every clip getting up to shenanigans.
Overall we plan to have an upbeat colourful video which reflects the song, it ill be quick paced and will hopefully leave the viewer feeling uplifted or energetic.
Here is a link to the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxhl-xV0UOs
The concept of filming the lifestyle of an artist is stereotypical of alternative rock. We aim to portray the amusing antics of our 'band' in our music video, similarly to the video to The Rock Show. Coincidently, this video also incorporates the performance aspect of an alternative rock band, however, we intend to portray our performance on a stage. Suggesting the artists are performing to a live audience.So our ideas really to include lots of random clips to make the audience laugh or just enjoy the spontaneous factors of the video to fit with the song, as the upbeat tempo of the song will allow us to fit the music with short bits of footage throughout.We plan to have varying locations, like town/shops to mess around in which you could link the Avril Lavigne video = Complicated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGXYAJoDWCk.
We will use parallel editing to switch between footage of the performance and various clips of the band. The image below shows the layout of the stage performance we are after. Test footage will later show the stage we're using and the camera angles and movement we hope to achieve.
Our situations will be random, and they wont really link, the only thing that will link the clips together will be the inclusion of the same members in most if not every clip getting up to shenanigans.
Overall we plan to have an upbeat colourful video which reflects the song, it ill be quick paced and will hopefully leave the viewer feeling uplifted or energetic.