Meet Florence...

This is a friend of mine from school, she has agreed to play the part of Florence for my music video. I will begin work with her as soon as possible and will spend alot of time filming her in different locations and times to get as much footage as possible.

Permission letter

Dear Copyright Holder,

I am an A-level media student and I am writing to you to request your permission to use the track 'Dog Days' by Florence and the Machine.

With your permission the track would be used in my current A-level Media studies project in which I have to create my own music video as well as creating a digi-pack and poster for the artist.

If I received your permission the track would only be used for educational purposes and would only be viewed by my media class, teacher and the exam board moderator.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognized throughout production and the final 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.

 

 

Analysing the lyrics

Happiness hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with her drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink
As the lyrics state, happiness literally hit her unexpectedly, just like when you see a train go back, it appears to hit something really quickly.
She is clearly scared of something, as she wants to hide anywhere possible.

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run
The dog days are like a metaphor for the unhappy and disappointing days in her life, she is saying that those days have gone, and now instead the horses are coming, a metaphor for freedom, so she is running with them.
Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can't carry it with you if you want to survive
Her family are almost a burden for her, and if she wants to move on with her life, she cant carry them with her, so she has to run away from it. Not necessarily because they are bad, but just because she needs to move on and let go.
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
'Cause here they come
Repeating about the bad days, and how they are gone,  also more repitition about the horses, and how they are almost there.
And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had and what was left after that too, oh
Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back
Struck from a great height by someone who should know better than that

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
'Cause here they come

Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You can't carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
'Cause here they come

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

MY SONG

Despite all the time I spent looking for a song, I have finally chosen to use Florence and the Machine- Dog days are over, the same song I used for the preliminary task. i loved this song then, and I still love it now. I will now be able to use the preliminary task to compare against.

To me I think that the lyrics are about a contrast in emotions, and the dramatic change. One minute the person is sad and feels like nothing can help, the next 'it hits her like a train', implying that happiness has hit. The song is about getting to this stage. I now need to study the lyrics closely and work out what I am going to do, and story board it,

Monday 28th November

In today's lesson I have spent my time trying to find a song, because i am very eager to start filming, but before I can do so, I need to start my storyboard. Whilst looking for a song, I realised that I was looking through all of the XFactor songs for inspiration. I thought about how I was actually being influenced by the media without even realising it. Having remembered that I heard a song on saturday night that I thought would be a good song, it stuck and I am now still looking thtough. This applies to the hyperdermic syringe theory, because once I was theoretically injected with the XFactor, I am not hooked and want to keep looking through their songs.

Stop crying your heart out
Under the bridge

LOVE this video

I LOVE the video they have made to go with this song, I really like the way there are so many different parts of the video, in different places, as well as the continuous close up of the eye and the cigarette. I would love to use this song as my own but I think I would be in danger of wanting to copy it. However I think I will definately look more closely at it and try use some of the same effects and ideas that they have used.

Still havn't picked a song...

I am eager to start filming, however that is proving difficult when I can't choose a song, and without a song, I can't story board. So here is a list of songs that I am thinking about and why...

This is a new song by Ed Sheeran in the charts at the moment, and I have listened closely to the words and think that I will be able to work well with it and create a good video. My video would be completely different to this one, as this one is quite bizzar, this is a very good thing for me.

I really like this song because of the story behind it, the story is about Professor Green's hatred and negative feelings towards his father, and his passing. I have a lot of feelings for this song, and I also think that I would enjoy making a music video for it. However, I may have problems trying not too copy this too much.

Equipment list

Here is a list of the relevant items that i may need in order to create my music video.

Digital Video Cameras
In order to create my music video I require a digital video camera. I will use this to film my entire video, unless I use stills, in which case I will use an ordinary digital camera.
 Tripod
I will be using a tripod throughout my filming to get a more stable shot rather than using a hand held approach. With a tripod I will be able to leave one camera standing still getting a constant angle and shot of what is happening. And then if I need to, I can use another camera to get close ups and other bits of footage.
Microphones
The microphone will be used more as a prop, rather than used to record/listen to the music. I will shoot some of my video with a microphone simply to make the video look more realistic.
Lighting 
At the moment I am unsure about what sort of lighting I will use and to what effect I will use it too, as I am still unsure aboutmy song. However I know that I will use some form of lighting, and possibly black and white, as I like the effect it gives.
Green Screen
I am also a bit unsure whether or not I will need to use the green screen, but if I do it will be my main singer/singers with a different background imported in. I can do this using adobe premiere elements, the software we use to put our video clips together.
Stands/stage
Again, depending on how I choose to have my singer, I may use a a staging, especially if I choose to continue with my orginal idea for the video.
CD Player/ Other audio player
I will be using a CD player in the production of my video, so that the singer can hear the music and sing it in time, which will help me to lip sync later.
Computer
I will be using a computer throughout the entire production of my video, to upload footage, as well as editing videos and putting them together.
Still cameras
I will use both still and hand held cameras to get a different view and effect on the videos,

Audience Questionnaire

Age?
Gender?
Location?

Questions on what music vidoes they like and why? (1-3)
Do you prefer male or female artists? Why?
What do you think of videos with more than one story line?
Your favourite music video ever, and why?


Questions on what they may like to see/enjoy seeing in a music video and why?
Bright colours or colour effects such as back and white/sepia?
Outdoors videos or indoors videos?
The artist singing or story lines of other people (actors)?


(When i have chosen a song I will complete this)
Multpile choice/ open question

create charts of results

Focus Groups and analysis of results

For my focus group I have created 5 questions each of which I will ask to different people and using their responses I will take this on board and use i towards making my music video as good as it can be, consulting my focus group all the way through.

Here are my 5 Questions:

1. The basic plan for my music video is for it to have 2 strands, one of which will be of my artist singing, and the other will be the story of the video portrayed by actors. What do you think about it? 
2. What is your favourite genre of music and why?
3. Is there anything that you hate to see in music videos and why?
4. Where do you think would be a good location to film such a music video?
5.  Do you prefer solo artist or band's music videos?

And here are their responses:

Matt Prowse

1. I think it would work well, it will help the video be explained. 
2. Club/Drum and bass because it is more my generation and it is the sort of music we like to dance too, I find that the lyrics are easy to relate to and that makes it more enjoyable.
3. I hate to see sadness and violence in videos, I don't see the point in putting violence in a video, unless ofcorse it is to raise awareness. I think it makes the videos depressing as well as giving off bad vibes and can easily be seen as influencing young children to be violent too.
4. If you choose Adele, which I know you are unsure about then I think that a rainy location would go well, it would give the right atmosphere for the lyrics.
5. I prefer solo artists, as it is one person that you can relate to and form a closer relationship with over time.

James Reader

1. I like the idea of it, just concerned it might become a bit boring. 
2. Alternative music is my favourite genre as I quite simply think it sounds good, I like the sounds they produce and find that I can listen to the same songs and not get annoyed with them over time.
3. I don't like to see pink girly things, but that's just personally because I'm a guy, there is nothing wrong with it otherwise. I also don't like to see American punk rock type videos, as I find them fake and feel that they are trying to be something else, its stupid.
4. Outdoors somewhere.
5. I prefer bands as I enjoy the variety of instruments used and the sounds they produce, I also like to hear the contrast in the voices when they sing.

Dan Buckland

1. Thats my favourite type of music video- done right i think it could be very good. 
2. Classical/ orchestral, because it calms me and makes me feel relaxed and think about things, I enjoy other music too, but I find that classical is a way to unwind and relax.
3. I dont like to see racist things, with a large amount of one ethnic group, I think it is disrespectful.
4. On a stage, performance area.
5. I like bands more than solo artists because they seem to have a bond that I dont feel with solo artists.

Elizabeth Trask

1. Personally i prefer seeing one artist/band on stage and just watching them in a music video, but it think for the song, it could work well.
2. I love rock music because it has a great beat to dance to and you can relax and lose yourself in it.
3. (Michael Jackson- Earth song) This is the only video that has ever really affected me, it shows animal cruelty and I think it is horrible.
4. Outside in a large field with lots of space, and maybe vary it.
5. I like bands the most as I enjoy seeing their wide range of talents expressed through their songs.

Conventions of a music video

Camera shots
There are a number of different shots used in media, each create a different effect on what is happening or to give a range of perspectives. For example,
Extreme Wide Shot (EWS)-The view is so far from the subject that he isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.

Very Wide Shot (VWS)- The subject is visible, but the emphasis is still on placing him in his environment.

Wide Shot (WS)- The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible.

Mid Shot (MS)- Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

Long Shot (LS)- Same as an establishing shot. 

Medium Close Up (MCU)- Half way between a MS and a CU

Close Up (CU)- A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame

Extreme Close Up ( ECU)- Shows extreme detail.

Two Shot- A shot of two people, usually at a MS.

Over The Shoulder Shot- (OSS)- Looking from behind a person at the subject.

Point Of View Shot ( POV)-  Shows a view from the subject's perspective.

Weather Shot- When the subject is the weather.
          - Music videos usually include lots of long shots, Close ups and Mid shots. This is to put emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. In a music video a close up is also commonly used to show the lyrics of the song and follow the lip movement.

Camera movement
In music videos the camera movement usually has two roles, one is to show the movement of the band/artist, and the other is used to shoot the video if it has another story line. The movement of the camera usually consists of tilts and pans which are used to give a different look and light/dark effect on the video.

Mise-en scene
Mise-en scene literally means, what is in the shot. At any point in a film, music video or TV drama you can stop the viewing and see what the mise-en scene is. It consists of colours and the effects that they give, lighting, props, actors, clothing, design, where they are and acting. All of these things make up what we see, and each of them have been put there for a reason to cause an effect or sub-consciously think something.


Editing
There are a number of ways to edit a movie or a music video and they all give a different effect. In music videos however th 'jump cut' is the most common form of editing, as it enables the video to quickly jump to a different part without delay. Although for our music videos we may also use editing such as 'fade' and 'dissolve' which also gives us a different form of cutting, perhaps a more gentle approach.

Lighting
The light in a music video is all down to setting the mood of the video. There are a number of different effects used in music videos to give a different feeling. The lighting can be made darker or lighter, depending on how the current mood is. Black and white as well as sepia can also be used for different effects, sometimes to show the past/future. And finally coloured lights can be used to create a different effect or set a particular mood.


Sound
In a music video, the main sound will be the music and the lyrics, it is not very likely that any other sound will be put in, excpet if the video has a conversation or sounds such as birds or cars dubbed in to set a scene.


Props
Props are specific objects used in a scene, they can be anything from a microphone to a car. They halp make the video look more realistic, rather than having a plain video with nothing happening.


Costume
The costume helps us to identify the genre of the music video, and has an influence on the whether we as the audience are atracted to the song. For example if they are wearing casual clothes that we too would wear, then we can relate to the video easier.



http://www.slideshare.net/jamsjamsjams/conventions-of-music-videos-2935597
 I also used this website to help me and then explored it, finding that it contained alot of useful information.        http://www.mediacollege.com/home/

Audience Theories

The hypodermic syringe theory
The hypodermic syringe theory suggests that we as the public are easily sucked into the media and media devices. It states that when we watch things on the news/ TV/ films, or play video games, they can take an effect on us and make us act differently according to this. The idea of it being a 'syringe' theory is that it suggests the media topic is injected into us and takes immediate effect in our minds, then continues to play in our minds afterwards.

Two-step flow
The two-step flow theory suggests that media can be spread to the audience by word of mouth and advertising. Once someone has seen/used/watched some kind of media, they will continue to talk about it and tell people about what they have seen, the people they tell will then want to watch/play/see it and it will continue so on. It also suggests that once one person has seen an advert of any kind, they will then tell friends and family about what they have seen, and people will then want to see it for themselves. This is how some forms of media are spread and known to the public.

Uses and gratifications
Uses and Gratifications Theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people.It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications.

Research into the music video industry

Research into the music video industry pp

View more presentations from Laura Wood

How do audeinces access music videos? Where can they be seen?

•There are a number of ways that the audiences can watch a music video, whether it is old or new.

•One of the most popular ways these days is to watch it on YOUTUBE, I find youtube is very useful as it has almost everything, including the brand new videos. Millions of users watch youtube as the videos are easily accessible.

•Another way is to watch music channels on the TV such as; MTV, VIVA, and special time slots when the top 40 countdown and other chart shows are on the TV.

•Snippets of  music videos are shown on adverts between TV shows if it is a new video and they are trying to advertise it.

How much money is usually spent on the average music video? Have any been made very cheaply or are there any that have had huge budgets?

•According to research, an average, fairly low budget music video would cost a minimum of £50,000. However this can go anything up to $500,000 or even more. For example, Michael Jackson’s music video for scream cost $7,000,000 to make. It really does depend on how well known the artist is, a new artist/band will not have a very large budget to spend on hiring all of the crew to create a video quite as large as Michael Jacksons. ( look on my blog to watch Michael Jackson’s Scream)

Who are some famous music video directors and why are their videos so well known/ successful?

•Jonas Akerlund- The director of Lady gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’

•David Fincher- The director of The Rolling Stones ‘Love is strong’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Who is it?’

•Their videos are made so popular by the large budget they are able to put into it. The larger directors will not want to do a video for a not very well known artist as the likeliness of it even getting into the charts is slim. They need return on a music video, as then it will become more well known.

•Depending on how well constructed the video is, determines whether it becomes popular, if it is different from normal videos and shows a unique and cleverly choreographed video, the public will be more likely to enjoy it and continue watching it. However it also depends on the song, as if the song is very popular, and makes it into the top 40 chart list, then more people will want to watch the video that goes with it. I know that when a new song comes out and they release the song without a video then I will keep checking the charts on the TV to see what the video is like.

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

The most obvious and general reason for companies and artists to create music videos is for the profit they make on them. However other reasons include enjoyment, and doing the thing that they love. In the case of the artist it is about showing off their talent for singing and possibly dancing too. Where as in terms of the production company it is about them doing the thing they love too. Media production and working with the aritsts.
The purpose of the music video itself is to advertise and get peoples attention for the artist to make them more popluar with the public, the better the video is, the more popular the song will be, and then more people will buy it and therefore they will gain more money from it.

How are music videos generally made? What is the production process?

 Film/music video production has 3 main parts:
Pre-production
The first stage of making a music video in the music industry is to choose a production company which they know will produce a good video and be known by the public and well respected. If a famous band/artist was to choose an unknown production company then the public may think they are not so serious about making it. It my also not be to a very good standard and therefore people would not enjoy it and want to watch it. It also includes hiring the crew and building/planning sets.
In this stage there should also be ideas and a story board in mind with a structured plan of what they want to happen. This should be discussed with the crew and production company. This could take several months to get right and have several meetings with everyone involved.

Production
At this stage more crew will be hired to help with the production of the video, and then once they know everything is in place, filming will begin. Hundreds of takes will be taken so that they have plenty of footage to work with and create the video.  Stills will also be taken and used if necessary. This is probably the most important part of the production process, because if this part goes wrong then the entire video will gowrong and the video may not be made, wasting alot of money. It is also possible that they will begin to make the video, or even be half way through, and they will not like it, and have to begin completely again. However, as the video will have been drafted so many times this should not happen.


Post-production
This final stage is where the video is put together, and edited. If animation is necessary then this is the part of production where it will happen. There would be a separate team of crew who work in the graphics department who specialize in putting these parts together and making the lip syncing and everything else perfect. This music video will then be duplicated hundreds of times ready for different formats and also ready for distribution. Parts of the video may also be used for advertising the video, as well as the stills being used for digi packs and posters.

List of the most expensive music videos

As my music video is going to be extremely low budget, probably not actually costing anything in terms of purchasing extra equipment or paying for a venue ect, I thought it may be interesting to see just how much has been spent on some of the most popular music videos. So here is a list of the top 10:
(production cost in dollars)

1. Micheal and Janet Jackson- Scream- $7,000,000
2. Madonna- Die another day- $6,100,000
3. Madonna- Bedtime story-  $5,000,000
4. Madonna- Express your self- $5,000,000
5. Guns 'N' Roses- Estranged- $4,000,000
6. Puff Daddy- Victory- $2,700,000
7. Mariah Carey- Heartbraker- $2,500,000
8. MC Hammer- Too legit to quit- $2,500,000
9. Busta Rhymes- Whats it gonna be?!- $2,400,000
10. Celine dion- It's all coming back to me now- $2,300,000

I was curious to see why this video cost so much to produce.So I researched it and realised that it would of mainly been down too special effects. However then I did more research and found out just why it cost so much:

• Taking 11 days to film it cost an average $636,000.00/day.
• Each set averaged $450,000.00 totaling $5,000,000.00 for all 11 of them.
• $53,000.00 worth of guitars were broken.
• Michael Jackson's makeup cost $3,000.00.

Research into the music video industry

As I am doing some research into the music video industry, I am going to answer a series of questions in a variety of ways.  Theses are the questions:

• How are music videos generally made?- What is the production process?
• What is the purpose of a music video for the companies/ artists that make them?
• Who are some famous music video directors and why are their videos so well known/ successful?
• How much money is usually spent on the average music video? Have any been made very cheaply or are there any that have had huge budgets?
• How do audiences access music videos? Where can they be seen? 

Whilst thinking about the first question I remembered watching something on TV about the production of Cheryl Cole's music video for 'Fight for this love' I looked it up on youtube and re-watched it. Although there is a large part of it that is an interview with Cheryl there is also a lot of footage showing shots of the scene. We can see the cameras that were used as well as all the effort that was put in to make the video as perfect as possible. This shows that there was obviously a pretty large budget spent on the video. Here is the video in 2 parts from youtube.

Stop motion

What is Stop Motion?
Stop motion is a technique used in media to form an animation video. The idea of stop motion is to make objects appear to be moving on their own, usually objects that should not and clearly could not in the way they are made to.
 The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.
Here is a video that explains and demonstrates what stop motion is and how to create a stop motion video. I chose this particular video beause it explains how to make the video as well as putting it together. The software that they use in the video is the software we use at school. (Adobe premiere elements)

Although this is not related to a music video, it is the same concept. I am possibly thinking about using stop motion in a small part of my video, simply to show the use of the technique. If i do not use it in the video, I may just create a small stop motion video to practice and learn the technique.

Help and research

Whilst researching into both intertextuality, concepts and music video categories i have come across a few things that have helped me with my research. One of which is a blog by a man called Matt Keil and here is a link to his blog/website- http://www.mattkeil.com/
His blog/website was very useful and helped me to understand the different categories of a music video. I will definitely be referring to this website in the future for more help.

 As well as this website I also found a slide show on 'Slideshare' which was quite useful, it was created by other media students and as it was research I thought it may be useful to others and also helpful for a referral for myself.  ( if the video does not work, here is a link to the website- http://www.slideshare.net/guest60af28/media-music-video-codes-and-conventions-presentation-1994185 )

Categories of music videos

There are 3 main categories of music video which include:

• Performance Based videos
• Narrative Based videos
• Concept Based videos

Performance based videos
 Whereby the band or artist is shown performing the song as it plays in perfect sync for most of, if not all of the video. The camera focuses purposely on the lyrics from the artist and the music produced by the band. music videos such as these will be mainly of these two things.
Here is an example of a performance based music video-
 A good example of a performance based video is Foo Fighters- Best of you. As you can see the video is based on the artist and the band. This is a performance based music video.

Narrative based videos
Some music videos choose to have a storyline of some sort that relates to the lyrics of the song in some way. This type of video will usually include actors, who can often play out the message of the song. Intertextuality is also included in narrative based videos as this can often show parts of films or news clippings, which also acts out the song lyrics.This is probably the most popular category of music video as it is easy on the eye and esy to follow and understand.
Alot of Basshunter's songs are narrative based as the actors are acting out what is happening within the song and this is quite clearly put across. Here is an example: Basshunter- now you're gone.

Concept based Videos

Concept based music videos usually focus on one concept or idea from a song and is quite often based around animation or a particular type of editing technique. Here is Bruno mars- just the way you are, This video is concept based as you will see due to the single idea and editing technique they use with the cassette tape.

I think my music video will be mixed, it will be partly narrative and partly performance based. As I hope to have part of it focused on the singer and the lyrics and possibly a pianist , then the rest of the video will have a narrative story of which I will either use the singer or another actor to help me get the message of the song across.

Intertextuality

What is Intertextuality?

Is the practice of deliberately including references to one text in the narrative of another, either as homage to the text referred to or as a device intended to engage the interest of the audience by appealing to their prior knowledge and experience or media texts.

Here are two examples of where intertextuality is used. 'I dont wanna miss a thing' by Aerosmith is a song writen and dedicated especially to the film of 'Armageddon' As you can see the artist includes clips from the film so that the audience can relate and undertsand the meaning and purpose of the song. This is intertextuality.
I personally do like the way that these two videos have used intertextuality as it makes you remember the parts of the film and gives the music video more depth. It also gives it a different side which keeps it interesting and helps you to understand the lyrics.

I dont wanna miss a thing- Aerosmith ( Armageddon)  Power of Love- Huey Lewis ( Back to the future)

I will not be using any form of intertextuality in my music video as I do not wish to relate it to any form of other already known media text, including news articles, film clips etc.

Different music video genre's

In the music industry there are hundreds of different genres. Depending on your tastes and interests, depends on what type of music you like and will listen to. Here I will name and explain a few of the more popular and common genres and give a few examples to help explain the characteristics of each genre.
pop (Justin Bieber, Rihanna, LMFAO)
Rhythm and blues ( R&B) (Adele, Lady gaga, Chris Brown)
Rock ( Queen, Pink)
Country (Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus)
Acoustic (Jack Johnson) 
Hip hop & Rap (Eminem, Pitbull, Wiz Khalifa)
Dance (Katy Perry, Pizie Lott, Swedish house Mafia)
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music.

Laura Mulvey's feminist film theory

Best known for her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'
One part of her theory suggests the 'male gaze theory', this is based on the assumption that the majority of the male audience will be drawn in to something, if it is visually pleasurable, such as attractive women in music videos. This is highly believable as if you are to watch a large group videos, a lot of them will have women dressed up in an enticing manner.
The other part of her theory suggests that women are only portrayed as one of two possibilities. Either a ' virginal innocent charater' or a 'sexy whore'. Mulvey calls this the 'virgin/whore dichotomy'
Here are a few examples of videos in the official top 40 at the moment. As you can see all of them confirm the Mulvey theory as all the girls are dressed up in a 'sexy' way.

Target audience

In advertising a Target audience is a specific group of people within the general public, at which the marketing message ( in this case a music video) is aimed at.
This audience can be made up and formed by a range of people, for example age and gender.
Deciding who your target audience is is very important, as you do not want to market a particular product  to one category, if the actual audience whom will be interested, will not be attracted to the advertising.
For my music video I must decide on a genre for my video, and from there research who my target audience will be. That way I am able to design everything to be appealing to that specific group.
For example, if I chose to do a classical song, my target audience would be men and women of the older generation, as they would have grown up with those artists, therefore I do not want to create an upbeat, urban video.
From here I must choose my song soon and possibly put out a questionnaire to discover my target audience.

analysing 2 music videos

This is Beyonce's music Video, if i were a boy. It is a narrative based video, and has a continuous story line throughout the whole thing. It is filmed in black and white which I think removes all emotion and makes it feel very plain, However not so plain that it is boring. The song is about Beyonce singing about wishing that she could be in her boyfriends place, and make him feel like she feels, byt the way that he treats her. We are shows her emotions from close ups of her face and seeing how she acts towards him. I really like this video, and think that it shows a lot of emotion.

This video has a lot of meaning to it, as explained by the title 'No regrets'. This video shows Dappy, the artist, singing while there is a story going on inbetween and in behind him as he sings. I really like the way it does this because it really emphasises she lyrics against what is happening. If we were to see him singing the whole thing as well as seeing him acting, then we would not know what to focus on, where as this video shows the lyrics being played out by the video. The video is in colour, which I think shows the emotion, unlike the previous video. I like the way there is a seperate story line, and it has a number of strands. It gives the video more dimensions.

Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:

- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos.

Many of these features are present in all music videos, depending on the genre of the song and the aim of the record company/artist

Monday 19th

In this lesson we looked alot at stop-motion and how it can be used quite alot in some of todays most popular music videos. Two very different videos, with a large year span between them have used stop motion and in this lesson we analysed these videos to see how these effects are used and what they represent/ do to the video.

These videos are: Peter Gabriel- Sledgehammer and Cold Play- Every teardrop is a waterfall. After watching the peter gabriel video I found that the video is very unsual. At the beginning the relationship between the music and the visuals is almost perfect, for example, where Peter gabriel sings about a steam train and the editing shows a steam train in the video. However, later in the video, it becomes very random and there are faces made out of fruit, which has no relevance to the video. I am not sure why they have done this. Despite this, stop motion is used throughout the video, which I find very impressive. If I do some more research and practice how stop motion works, I may decide to use it in my own video.

sample clips and pictures

Here are a sample of clips and stills we have taken over the last few filming days, fingers crossed we will have enough to work with and create a sufficient music video. As you may see with a few of these clips and a problem we found, was clothing, our singer did not have on the same clothes each day, so using the same backdrop and seeming as if it is all the sasme day, yet having different clothes for each, may not look too good.

More problems

Yesterday we attempted to start editing our clips, and had to stop not long after as we had software issues. Our biggest problem was sound, we were unable to get the sound from the audio to play on any of our computers, we left the computers to re-boot, and waited until today to try again.
This morning we encountered the same problems again, except this time, the sound bagn to work, then suddenly the sound went again. We changed computers and did it all slowly, and luckily, it worked.
The next problem we had was the soundtrack we downloaded from itunes, was a faster version of the song we had originally used. So we immediately rocognized that lip syncing would be a huge problem. Therefore more time was wasted trying to find the correct version.
Eventually we did, but more software problems arrised- our clips were quite jumpy, and we were finding that difficult to sync with the music.

good and bad things about the footage..

The biggest problem we have with the footage we have, is that the camera does not like the effect that the strobe light has, and when we watch it back on the computer, it looks crackly, and flashes part of white. Although this will have a bad effect on our karaoke video, it has warned us prior to us making our own video if we choose to use the lights and setting.
Another problem we have is that one of the cameras is quite old and only has 2.8megapixel, as apposed to the other cameras that has 5 megapixel, so the quality of the other camera is not as good and looks very blury and quite pixelated. Therefore we may not be able to use alot of the footage, unless we use just footage from that camera.
However on the plus side, we do have a lot of footage and a lot of different angles, and from all the practice we have had on the lights we managed to time them quite well and also achieve colours to go with the words and mood within the song. For example, at a point in the song the word 'happiness is sung and the colour turns to yellow, which is associated with being happy, aswell with the timing, when the music speeds up or slows down, the light flash slows down or speeds up with it.

Starting the karaoke video

The song we have decided to use for our practice video is   Florence and the Machine- Dog days are over.

We started filming our karaoke video today after about 3 days of practicing with the lights and sound. Our first few takes of the video didnt go too well as we could not seem to get the correct lights with the music. One of our cameras also died which meant that we could not get all the angles we hoped for. We played around with the other 2 cameras and decided that the best outcome and variety of takes would be to have one static camera sat on a tripod, and one moving camera which circled the singer. Although this did give us a lot of different angles, we cannot use a fair bit of the footage as we can see eachother in the takes. However, this should not be too much of a problem as we are able to cut and slot in different parts. The only problem that may occur is that it could be quite jumpy and may not flow very well. 

Research..

In doing some research about production and other people music videos I found a very useful website which was full of information and links to other blogs.
http://www.longroadmedia.com/
I looked mainly into the links for - 'music video project' and 'production evaluation' Both of which had links to blogs and research links.

Evaluation questions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

lighting

As I have been thinking about lighting alot and how I plan to use the lights in my video to create effect, such as using a spot light on my singer. I thought it may be useful if I were to research how lighting has been used in other music videos and films. I found this video which I felt was very useful as it gave a definition of the lighting technique's and then examples of real music videos where it has been used. It has given me a few good ideas and even if I dont use them for my video, they may come in handy for the karaoke video.

Ideas..

Whilst playing around with the lights I was thinking about my own video after and had a number of ideas incorporating this technology, as i think it would be a shame to not use it. My favourite song choices at the moment are Adele- Rolling in the Deep and Adele- someone like you. I think they both have great lyrics and could immediately think of some good ideas for a music video. Today however whilst testing the lights and sound I had some ideas of how to make my video unique and how to take advantage of the technology. As there is also a large drop down screen with a projector, I have thought that it may be a good idea to create my music video out and around using the story line I will create, however rather than just having my entire video as that, I can have my main artist and person in the video sat on the stage with a spotlight with the video and footage running in the background, by which I will swap back and forth to the video and to my artist singing. However this was just an idea and may think of something different and more appropriate.
If I do choose to use the song 'Someone like you' I may choose to have someone playing along with the piano as i think that could enhance the slow tempo of the song, where as if I were to do that with 'Rolling in the deep' it may ruin the flow of the song.

Thursday 8th lesson

Today we had our first lesson on how to use the new software and technology in the hall. We learnt how to use the lights and sound and how a 'few' of the controls work, it was very confusing as there was so many different controls. when we had a try out for ourselves we found that the effects for the lights were endless and looked amazing on the stage. Next lesson we must have chosen a song and be prepared to start filimg our final practice video. So far our favourite idea is 'Tracey Chapman- fast car' as it is simple and will be a nice song to be able to lip sync to. For the next week we will be up in the hall practicing how to use the lights and how to adjust the sound.

Todays lesson

In today's lesson we read over a section of 'MediaMagazine September 2011' written by Pete Fraser. From this small part we picked out parts that were relevant to our coursework and found information that would help us. From reading this we found a sub heading called 'Karaoke music video' this said......"..." Which we felt was extremely relevant and would help us in the production of our own music video. Therefore in the next few lessons we have decided to make a short, 1 minute video as a group. We have a great location with high-tech lighting and sounds, this will give us more of an idea on how it will be to make our video, and may also give us tips and how to/not to do things in the future. We will also have to think carefully about how to not complicate this video too much as we need to keep time and ideas for our videos. This is primarily to help us understand and more about camera angles and lighting, as well as mise en scene, because despite our location being very useful, the back drop and area is not very appropriate. One idea is to use the green screen, however I am worried this will use up too much time. Now to choose a song..

"In defence of media"

Having read an article in 'Media Magazine September 2011' by a media teacher Nick Potamitis on production and his own experiences and reflection as a producer I found a number of interesting points that are relevant and that i can relate to and understand. Having referred to himself as a 'geek' he explains how he feels that this title comes with many perks when in the process of production, one of which is creativity............

Song ideas so far..

Lemar- Someone should tell you
Adele- Rollying deep
Maroon 5- She will be loved
Maroon 5- Runaway
Ed Sheeran- The A team

Analyzing my preliminary task

I do feel that the overall outcome of my preliminary task is well managed. There are a number of good points to the video, as well as there also being a large number of parts that I would change and will learn from next time.

The video itself has produced a good result, and it is watchable, which is more than i thought it would be when we had finished. I think that we chose some really good songs, and the video has a humorous side to it, which I think is a good thing to have when showing it to other people.
One major lesson I have learnt from this project is how I should stand the camera's next time, as you can see from a number of parts throughout the video, the picture is quite wobbly, and does not look very professional, therefore we should have used a tri-pod more often than we did to get a clearer picture and a more stable image. This will make the video easier for us to watch as well as making it simpler for me when videoing.

Lip-syncing is a huge part of the video making and in parts of this video, it is not very well matched. I found that it was very hard to match the lips with the music perfectly, in fact it was a lot harder than i was expecting it to be. If the lip-syncing is out then the entire video looks awful. Therefore when choosing actors/artists for my next video I should make sure that they are very well pronounced with a lot of confidence, as that way they will be more confident when videoing.
As I have never used the software before I was very uncertian about how it worked, therefore a lot of my time was spent exploring the software or asking other, more experienced users how to work it. For example, I spent a long time working out how to mute the sound from the video when the music is playing, but as you can see I soon discovered, that in order to do this you must cut the exact part of the music that you require and place it on the storyboard, as well as cutting the same amount in the video that is in sync with the music. Then once this has been cut, I had to right click and find volume, therefore lowering the sound completely. At some places in the video this has been done very well, but in others, either the clip has been cut too early/late, the music has been cut too early/late, or they are not in time.  This has made me think more carefully about what song I should use for my music video, as I do not want to be using a song that is too quick and the words can not be very easily heard/seen.

The mise-en-scene in a number of these clips is not very well constructed, for example in 'The Candy Shop' scene, there are clothing rails and buckets in the background, this does not go very well with the image I am trying to put across and the same goes for a few of the other clips. I should have thought about where the camera angles were, where I was going to stand and where I was going to have the actors stand to gain the best shot before I begun filming.

Another serious issue that I must ensure that I check before I film next time is lighting, in a few shots the lighting is irregular and this does not help with the overall image. In some cases, the light may be over exposed and we are unable to see everything clearly, and in others the light is too dim and we cannot see everything that we need to.
I feel that the editing and cuts between each clip has not been done very well and the general 'flow' of the video is not very good, it is very jumpy and it shows that the video has been done to a lower standard. I'm sure that when I begin to understand how the software works a bit better, I will work out how to make these transitions look better and more professional. For example using different effects and transitions would have helped the video to go easier and would have also made it easier to watch as apposed to the jumpy way it does now.

So frustrating!

One huge problem I have found with the school software, is that it tends to crash a lot. I began to analyze my video and believed that when I logged off at the end of the lesson, everything I had written had been saved. However, as I found when I logged back on again on my own computer, the work I had previously done, has been lost. This is frustrating and a waste of time. I really hope that this does not happen when it comes to creating my real music video.

Our video!!

We have finally finished our video and uploaded it to Youtube. Overall I am initially pleased with the quality of the video and I think that as it is a preliminary task and I was completely new to all the software and technology within this project, we have done a good job.

Firstly, I do believe that the picture quality is good, and the general visuals are acceptable, however one thing I know I would and will change for my actual task next year is to mainly use a tri-pod to shoot my video.



Ready to start editing

Now that we have finished our exams we are able to devote more of our time to the editing of our video, we have finished filming as well as having all the correct songs.
So, using Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 we imported all of the clips and songs, the problems with this was that because we used two cameras, one hand held camera and one on a tri-pod, the scenes were not all together which was a slight problem when trying to find the best take of each scene.
Once this was done we then put the required song with the right clip, as I had not really used this software before I was a bit unsure of what to do, so with some help from the rest of my team we were able to work out what different controls did what we needed them to do.
Muting the sound while the music was playing was a large problem that I came across but once wokring at it for a while we soon worked out what to do. In order to only mute a select part of the song we had to cut the clip just as the actor started to sing with lyrics and just as they finished, then going to volume controls we were able to turn the volume completely down and insert the small part of song lyrics that we had just cut from the entire song. We then had to watch this part over and over again to ensure that the lip-syncing was as close as we could get it. This process was also very long winded and was not very fun to do.
However, continuing with this process throughout the whole video we soon had roughly a 2minutes 30second long video. Eric, Alex and I, all had a shot at editing different parts of the video and also advised eahother on what to do to help.
Because we all had work experience we were unable t do as much work to the video as we would have liked, but we all managed to spend a few hours throughout the week to finish it.