Filming

Yesterday on boxing day I went to Rough tor one of the Cornish Hills to start my filming. It was a successful day managing to get loads of footage and cover what I wanted to cover.
This was a cold day and the sun not out so it was represented as a cold day in the colours of the sky and landscape. This was the effect I wanted.
Here are a couple clips I really liked from the filming

Pictures of filming locations

I went to the woods near school and this was a really good place for me to base the woods scenes for my music video as the paths are wide and surrouned by woodlands. The woods near my home were not appropiate to film in as it was too steep and also it wasnt what I was looking for.

Pictures of the woods.

In todays media lesson we looked at a slide show made by Pete Fraser on Ten tips to making a music video.
I found this really helpful and informative and very interesting as well to see what he had to say. I liked to see that what he recommends doing is what I have already done myself for example using the cameras as a trial to see what they can do and familiarising myself with the software which I have done for my prelimonary task.

Filming Location

I plan to film the sunrise and sunset here. I have walked here before and know the areas I want to film. I will film the sunrise and sunset over the large rock formation at the top of Rough Tor

I also plan to use the woods near school or Laneast woods as my woods shot area so I plan to go there to see if its the right place I want with the right scenery.



Mise en Scene

When making the music video I am going to have to think about the mise en scene a lot. I have considered filming in the woods and I think all of this footage will have to be done in one day or at least a small time frame to insure that the woods scene doesn't change. When I am doing the filming in the hall I will be able to put up the backdrop to the scene so the mise en scene will not change in this scene.

If I film on different days I will have to ensure that my artist is wearing the same clothes all time that he is meant to be in the film.

This weekend I was unable to go and get the shots of the places I want to film as the weather was not how  I wanted it and would be giving the wrong impression.

Filming Schedule

This is the filming schedule I plan to follow for my music video

Friday 18^th – Sunday 20^th November

Go to locations and see where I am going to film exactly and start to take photos of where I want this to be.

Wednesday 30^th

Film in the New Hall with the lights, and film the appropriate shot required from the new hall

Friday 2^nd – Sunday 4^th December

Take the artist to the woods and get the shots needed in the woods.

Focus Group

I asked a focus group to give me there feedback of my storyboard.

A couple comments I recieved:

They liked the bit where it goes dark and shows the car filmed in the dark.

Storyboard

Here is my storyboard, I have added colour and expanded it more now.

The story starts off in an open space looking out and seeing the clear blue sky and then in the distance you can see the woods. Later on in the video you go to the woods and quite a bit of it is filmed there. Also I filmed in the new hall and here I plan to do quite a bit of filming

Permission Letter

Shebbear College,

Shebbear,

Beaworthy,

Devon

EX21 5HJ

Dear Copyright Holder,

I am an A-level media student about to make a music video and I am writing to you to request your permission to use the track Mad World by Tears for Fears.

With your permission the track would be used for my A level project. The project consists of making your own music video, creating a poster and a digi-pack for the artist as well.

If I received your permission for using the track it will be used for educational purposes only and only viewed by my media class, teacher and my exam marker.

Throughout the video the artist and your company would be fully reconised and be credited in the music video itself. If you wish for there to be a copyright notice to be included in the video I would need any information sent to me so that it could be included in the project. If this is wanted please inform me with further details.

I look forward to your response,

With thanks

Alexander Cornish

Storyboard Edit

When originally making my storyboard which I thought was fine at the time I have changed my mind on a few aspects of it.
I thought originally that the detail i went into enough but I have since expanded it a lot more going into much more detail and making the discription on each picture a lot more focused, with the pictures having colour and  more attention to detail for example the weather

Today we started to study the written part of the exam more. We were told we had to choose an area which we wanted to study. I chose to study how youths are represented in the media.
I have chose to look at a historic film, a contemporary film, and a news article. I was also told that a good thing to watch would be Scenes from a teenage killing.
We watched this in class and I think our whole class was shocked by the documentary.

My Video Concept

I plan to have my artist walking through the woods and also do a live performance. The woods shot will be filmed in the woods near school, and I plan to have the artist doing a live music performance in the new school hall. The new school hall has lighting, and music effects available to use and this means that I can choose the colour that the artist is surrounded by, I can also add many effects to this changing the colour and making it strobe and many other effects.

Music Video Analysis 3

I have chosen to analyse the music video for the song 'Every teardrop is a waterfall - Coldplay'

In the opening scene it shows the sunrising over the city skyscrapers and then it shows the drawings of it and this is all filmed in stopmotion. Andrew's Goodwin's theory has been proved in this video with opening section with it being filmed in stopmotion it has the words written on the walls. Mulveys theory isnt used in this in this music video.
The lighting in this video is generally rather bright showing that the music is upbeat.

Music Video Analysis 2

I have chosen to analyse the song Pumped up kids by Foster the people.

The video starts off performance based with the lights coming from behind them. Also in the opening scene we see someone tombstoning and later into the video we see the same place again but showing different people jumping. Later into the video it changes between the two storylines showing the performance side of the video and then showing the relaxed other part of the video.
This part of the video tends to be filmed in a different style often making it appear as if its a flash back because it is shown to the audience with a different lighting mood.
In this video they do not use Laura Mulvey's Male gaze thoery but however they do use Goodwin's thoery. They link the lyrics to the video thorughout.

Music Video Analysis 1

I have chosen to analysis the music video for Labyrinth's song Earthquake

This video is a concept based music video as it is set around one idea and this one idea is that speakers and other computer edited pictures.
Firstly it starts off with him sat in his mini cooper in a large warehouse before it shows all the computer graphics. Andrew Goodwins theory is used in this video as the speakers are linked in with the beats in music and the bit where he says 'Fire with fire' shows a flame in the background.
Mulvey's theory is not shown in this video as it is a concept/performanced based music video, and didn't have the narrative side to it.

Equipment List

Now I have worked out where I want to film and with what backdrop I can now work out what equipment I need.
I will need the following :
- Digital Video Cameras,
- Lights,
-Tripod,
- Microphone,
- Black Backdrop for Stage,
- Computer

To create the music video I want to do this is the equipment I need.

Bluestone 360

Today I visited Bluestone 360. Bluestone 360 is a advertising company who make adverts for Gregory's, Plymouth Argyle Football Club, Danepak and many more. I visited them today to see what Ian Gullingham the director there thought of my storyboard from an industry side.
He said that my storyboard wasn't detailed enough for industry. If a film director picked up your storyboard then he should be able to work out what happens in the video without having to read the caption. With the drawing you should include colour as it helps whoever is looking at your storyboard interpret it. The colour is very important to show the mood of the scene and it is vital to include colours, when you change the background colour this can easily change the overall mood of the scene.
As a company making storyboard for adverts and designing things he said that you cannot over do your storyboard as it is the bones to your video. Before he said he has done 50 drawings to make sure he is happy. He also said when choosing an illustrator for and advert that everyone has there own individual style and its important to show that.
I said that when I am making my storyboard that I am not very good at drawing so he recommended writing out the story and what I want to have in it and then draw the pictures, they don't have to be amazing just clear enough to the person reading who may never have seen it before knows whats happening.


He also mentioned that my storyboard captions must be much more detailed for an industry and have a lot more micro details in there. For example on the first scene in my storyboard is that a modern building, old building, what is the lighting like bright middle of the day or dark at night time, what is the weather doing.
He said that something he uses is finishing the video first. So make sure you know what your ending is going to be like first as this is the last thing that people are going to see and this will be the way they feel after viewing it so having the ending sorted can make people feel happy, sad etc.
He told me at the end to be creative because its the creative people with the unique style that get recognised and the people who stay in the crowd are the same. It is very important to draw or write down what you want to happen and show your own style rather than just follow the crowd.

Storyboard 1

Here are my intial ideas for my storyboard

This is my first intial storyboard with the timings ect on.

Audience Questionaire

I asked a group of people and asked for there feedback on two questions.

I had a couple extra comments:

Would be good to see a live performance and also see nature incorparated.

Live performance with music instruments.

Audience Research

I was curious to know where most people viewed music videos. So I asked a focus group to answer one question which was

"Where do you view most of your music videos"

This is how the results came out;

This shows that the younger generation view most of there music videos online on Youtube. Youtube is an ever growing company with more and more music videos going on there. Youtube holds all recent and past music videos, with the latest music on there.

Forms and conventions of a music video

A music video has many forms and conventions to stick to. When making a music video something the director has to consider is whether to follow or break the conventions of that genre.
Music videos tend to stick to the forms and conventions as the audience gets use to a certain type of video so there the audience feels familiar. Also the way the different music videos are filmed fit in with the right colours and lighting.

Pop videos

Pop videos tend to be based in a nightclub, or a party somewhere and they tend to use lots of close ups of the artists and mid shots. They don't tend to use a panning shot much it tends to be more jumpy and upbeat to go with the music. In a pop video there tends to be bright fluorescent lights and sometimes strobe is used.

Acoustic songs

In the music videos the tend to the natural environment, for example they use the sea, countryside, and woods for example. The lighting tends to be lighter. Usually you tend to see the artist playing the guitar. The video tends to be fairly free flowing with the transitions being smooth between clips.

Rock videos

Rock videos on the other hand tend to use dark colours using lots of close ups to show the facial expressions. The colours tend to be worn by the people on stage are usually very dark. The rock videos tend to follow two different story lines, usually one being performance based on stage for example and the other one tends to have a brighter lighting and is usually in cities.

Making a video

In the Guardian it gives a guide on making video. It talks about the different specifications of camera you should, what camera angles and other useful tips on making a video.

It was handy in here to read about Editing tips, sound advice, and how to make a film. It was really handy to read and other basic techniques.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/jan/26/makingvideoguide




Guardian January 2008 edition.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is very important and its important to make sure that your storyboard shows a clear picture of each clip and then its important to to allow room for a short caption to go underneath to make sure that you can identify which shot is going to go where and how long you hope it will last for.

When someone looks at a storyboard they should be able to guess what its about without having to actually read or follow it.

This storyboard helps show that with a little bit of writing under each scene. This maybe to tell the director what camera shot to use, whether any effects are going to be added i.e black and white

Research

• How are music videos generally made?

Depending on the budget decides on how the video is filmed. For example if the budget is large then the record company and artist can afford to go abroad to film, use special effects and top of the range equipment to get the most from it.

• What is the production process?

Firstly a lot of footage must be taken because there is undoubtly going to be a lot of clips you are unable to use maybe because its not clear and easy enough to lipsync or because the mise en scene wasnt considered but overall there has to be alot of footage to allow for wastage.

• What is the purpose of a music video for the companies/artists that make them?

Music Videos are made to be shown and promote the music video. This is in the best intrest of the artist, and record company because the two step flow theory says that the word is spread so if more poeple view the video then this will encorage them to buy the song.

• How do audiences access music videos? Where can they be seen?

Audiences can watch the music videos on the television or online. Many people watch music videos online and this is where the highest proportion of music videos would be watched.

Catergories of music videos

There are three different types of category for a music video:

•  Performance Based,
•  Concept Based,
• Narrative based.

A performance based music video is a music video that shows band/artist performing.

A narrative based music video is a music video that has a story behind it.

You can get a mixture of the two where the music video has two storylines and shows the band performing and will then show a narrative side to it and switch between the two.

A concept video is a music video based around one idea. These music videos aren't very common and most music videos tend not to be purely based on the concept video and may include Performance and Narrative based.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the reference to something in narrative to something else. For example earlier on in my blog I talked about how Dappy in his song No regrets talks about Chris Brown. In the song Moves like Jagger By Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera it keeps refering to Mick Jagger. This is really effective showing old clips and realting it back to Mick Jagger. It shows intertexuality in this video by showing old clips of the film.

My music video

In my music video I will have to think a lot about the mise en scene. I plan to use the countryside in my video .One place I want to use is Davidstow Airfield to film. I want to film here because for the panning shots I can do it will be really effective showing the landscape and use stopmotion. I want to use stopmotion in my video. I plan to film a sunset using stop motion. Watching Coldplay's song Every teardrop is a waterfall uses stopmotion to show the lyrics in the background.

Another place I want to try and use is a motor wait at night and speed this up to show all the lights going through to try and show the buisiness during the chorus.
I will then have two different storylines, the landscapes and the artist singing.

Stopmotion

In my video I plan to use stopmotion. Stopmotion is when you take a number of still in the same place of the same thing just altered slightly to try and show the video but have it in lots of stills sped up to make it seem like a video.
I plan to use stopmotion in my video to show a sunset or sunrise.

A advert on tv at the moment uses stop motion really effectively:

Another example of stop motion is Art Clokey's stop motion on Gumby. This tv series was made intirally using stopmotion. A tiny bit would be filmed and then Gumby and the surroundings made of clay has to be remoulded. 



Song Idea

I think that Mad World - Gary Jules is a very good to make my own music video. Some ideas I had about filming it is:

• I thought that in one part of the video I could use stop motion as I think this is very effective. I was thinking about using stop motion to film a sunset. I was thinking about doing this over the local Cornish hills.
• I want to also include the countryside and try linking my music video the countryside. This could be done either through the person singing in the countryside or have a panning shot of him walking in the countryside.
• I plan to use a varitie of camera angles including a panning shot, close ups, and long shot being my main three types.

Music Genres

When making my music video I am going to think about what genre I am going to do. There are many different genres now days.
For example:
Pop,
Dance,
R&B,
Rock

Just to name a few. When I make my music video I am going to have to think about whether I am going to Follow the forms and conventions of that genre or break them. Breaking the forms and conventions would be going against what is considered normal for that video. For example no pink fluffy rabbits in a rock video.

Target Audience

When making a music video you have to think about the target audience. Target audience is the group you are aiming your media product at. Target audience could be, Adults, Teens, Children, women, Men or a sport for example, your not going to advertise a childs movie at adults. When making my video I am going to consider my target audince. This will involve asking a focus group of my target audience for their opions on what I have done.


When producing my music video I am going to have to think about my Audience theories:

Two Step Flow - The two step flow is the theory of people telling each other and passing on the message and helping spread the word of things. The dark Knight film used this to help in the Blockbuster film.

Hypodermic Syringe - The hypodermic syringe theory is the theory that the information is fed to the audience and this is accepted by the audience

Today's Media Lesson

In today's lesson we looked at a few PowerPoints.
The first one we looked at highlighted clearly on the ways to get music. It says you must write a letter to the record company, or use a website which is copyright free.

Today's Media Lesson

Today we learnt about the different technical codes and conventions.
We learnt that they one of the earliest music videos was by Bob Dylan - Subterrean Homesick Blues. It wasn't until the mid 1980's until it was standard the every song has a music video to go with it.

In this video we see that there is a large link between the music video and the lyrics. The lyrics are shown on peices of card throughout the music video and this is the only storyline throughout the video. It is similar to the modern day Coldplay song i commented on in a previous post only that the modern day one uses stop motion to show the next word whereas in this one they drop a peice of card. This music video only uses one camera angle and is filmed in one go unlike modern music videos which are filmed using different angles, lighting, clips, effects, locations and other props and actors.

We also learnt that some artists follow a very similar route for all of there videos. For example we looked at Dido.

Dido - Thank you

In this video we see dido mainly in close ups or when long shots panning with her. The main effect used in this music video is the fade. Almost all of the way through this video she only uses the fade effect. The music video has two storylines. I then looked at Dido's song White Flag. This uses very similar camera shots, editing transitions and lighting effects.

Analysis of Music Videos

Today in media we analysed different music videos,

Dappy - No Regrets

In this music video there is two storylines running. You have Dappy singing and you also have the lady and mans relationship shown in clips throughout and in one clip it shows Dappy singing with the lady in the background combining the two storylines.
The main effect between clips in this video is the fade. Dappy uses fade alot in this video which is an effective way of combining the two story lines. In this music video we see how Dappy Has used Goodwin's theory of intertexual reference to other artists or  other music videos. In this music video he talks about Chris Brown.

One Direction - What Makes you Beautiful

In this video One Direction use the typical clip of a female flicking there hair or a close up of them. In this video there is only one main storyline which is the band singing, and there is a sideline story of the people with the girls. Also in this video they tend to use the fade as well as the plane cut. Laura Mulvey's theory is used in this music video when talking about the girl she appears sort of faded out in the video. 

Coldplay - Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

In the opening clip of this music video you have the main singer singing with the words appearing on the surrounding areas. This is really effective using stop motion filming to enhance this. The stop motion is using Goodwin's theory and shows how the visuals are linked with the music and words. I thought this was a good way to incorporate the lyrics.

Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love

In this video there is two story lines. You have the break up between two people and you also have her singing. The lyrics are linked with the song. This proves Goodwin's  theory of the relationship between the visuals and the music.  In this music video she talks about love falling apart and in other clips we see people falling out and upset.

Media Theories

Today we have learnt about different music video theories,
Firstly we looked at Andrew Goodwin's theory. This is a theory showing how the music video demonstrates genre characteristics ie. the right mise en scene. Also it says how there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics, this could be done with words shown in the scene. Also that there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. So the tone and the tone and atmosphere of the music is reflected in the video.

We then looked at Laura Mulvey theory. Her theory is that women are used in music videos as a male gaze. This theory suggests that the camera/audience always represents a hetrosexual man's perspective of a scene objectifying women. Another part of her male gaze theory suggests that wwomen are only portrayed as one of two possiblities.

Filming Practise

Today I went to my uncles farm and practising filming the landscapes and other things on the farm to improve my filming of camera angles and experiment using different shots.

One main upset was the weather as there were frequent heavy showers. Other than this I managed to get quite a bit of filming done practising my filming.

Analysis of my video clips,

Clip 1.

The farm lane. In this clip i wanted to get the feeling as if you were physically moving down the lane so tried walking with the camera but found this was too jumpy so then put the camera on the tripod and used the zoom. This was really ineffective and looking later and saw that you can use tracking dolly's to film such effects. I will consider this possibility for my actual music video.

Clip 2
This is a landscape shot. In this clip we see the hills in the background. If I was going to do this again I would use the tripod and think of a way of running the pan smoothly and a decent pace as I feel that I moved the camera too fast and didn't emphasise the point I wanted.

Clip 3

In this clip the camera was too zoomed in and has made the objects i wanted too blurry giving it a distorted effect. This maybe a good thing to include in my video but not the effect I wanted to gain.

Karoke Session

Today we went to the new hall and started filming with our song which is now 'Florence and the Machines - Dog days are over'

Firstly we had a guitarist and drummer in the background of the singer but then found that there wasn't enough cameras running, music and lights all controlled at once as there wasn't enough people. So next time we came to the conclusion that we will only have the singer on stage. This will enable use to hold the camera and walk around on stays filming from different angles and enable use to get effective close ups of the artist.

Music Karoke Session

On Monday 12th September we are going down to the new hall to use the lights and sound system. Are group has decided on the song "Tracy Chapman - Fast Car".  We decided to choose this song as it is a simple effective song that can be shot in the hall.

I plan to use the three cameras:
1. This camera will be slightly to the right of the singer looking up to them and at a close up to show the expression.
2. If the artist moves at all around the stage then this camera is going to pan with the artist at a long shot distance.
3. This camera is going to focus on the guitar. I aim to do this as it will show the different parts of the guitar and show the strumming on the guitar.

Lighting
I intend to start off with it being dark and then gradually using the dimmer switch increase the intensity of the lights with a red colour.
Further into the song I plan to increase the intensity of the lighting and when it gets further into it I plan to use the strobe lighting effect on verse 5. The advantage of strobing is that it can add passion and increase the attention to the audience.

Lighting and sound

Recently at school we have had a new hall put in with sound and lightin. The lighting is very effective being able to blend colours and use different effects. After being taught how to use the new technology we practised changing the lighting, and the sound changes between microphones and the ipod.
It took a while to get to know what each button did so that is why doing the karoke video will help us boost our confidence and familiarise ourselves with the different effects the lights can do.

One thing the lights can do is strobe lighting but our teacher then told us the strobe law. It states "The British Health and Safety Executive recommend that a net flash rate for a bank of strobe lights does not exceed 5 flashes per second, at which only 5% of photosensitive epileptics are at risk. It also recommends that no strobing effect continue for more than 30 seconds, due to the potential for discomfort and disorientation."


If I use the lights in the hall this is something I will have to consider

Research into making a music video

After reading the 'Media Magazine' September 2011 edition it made me think about what to do with my music video.

It talks about making a music video karaoke. Doing this would be really helpful and increase my skills in lip syncing and help me decide on the appropriate camera angles to include in my music video. The magazine talked about using a song and only use a minute of it and shoot the artist from different angles all at once using different cameras. This can be carried out easier now as we have bought more tripods making the filming easier.
I think this a good task to do before actually carrying out my music video.

Another thing it says is to avoid the obvious. It comments avoiding things chasing though shopping centres, pretend guns in public, sitting on swings roundabouts driving badly and other things.

Also it talks about editing. It says you should be ruthless and delete things and ensure you have plenty of video footage to ensure that if it isn't quite right then you have another piece of footage to replace it.

Analysis of my video

This is my A2 preliminary task.

Analysis

It is really important that for the actual piece of coursework I use a tripod as I feel that this would look a lot better with the camera staying steady and consistent. I also think that I will have to focus on the rule of thirds and other things for when considering my framing of the shots. Also I feel that when making my proper coursework piece that I will have to improve the lip syncing to make it a lot more effective.

One problem we had when starting to use the software was that no one knew how to use it. So I asked a previous A level student who has used the software to help show me what to do and how to do things on the software. This has helped me learn how to use this software.

With another tripod on order this is going to help us hugely as we can set up both cameras and have both held steadily so it is going to be jumpy.

Filming

We started filming today and managed to get the filming done in exam room. Firstly we tried filming in the memorial hall but we couldnt black out the room. It was important to us that we blacked out the room because we needed to use the song "All of the lights" so it very important to black it out. We then had to change location to the Drama studio to where the room was easier to black out and put more emphasis on the song.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard and we hope to folow this storyboard. We hope to follow this storyboard and film in these locations.

Music

Now we have done our storyboard we have decided that we can put some songs in with the speech.We thought about using the following songs in our "songs in real life"

• Umbrella - Rihanna
• Leaving on a jet plane
• L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N - Noah and the whale
• All of the lights - Kanye West ft Rihanna
• Bright Lights Bigger City - Cee Lo Green
• Buzzin - 50 cent
• The fast food song
• Frisky - Tinie Tempah
• The lazy song - Bruno Mars
• Oh No - Marina and the Diamonds
• Smack That - Akon
• Hello - Martin Solveig and Dragonette
• Why does it always rain on me - Travis

We hope to use the following songs in our media song.

Prelimonary Task

For our prelimonary task we have to make a song in real life.
This is our prelimonary task to help get us use to lipsyncing the music with talking. This is really going to help us for our final task.

We looked to see what the were on youtube. One video which we used for inspriration was the songs in real life by Steve Kardynal.