The music video would consist of Footage of many different people from in and around school dancing in different locations. The dance they would do would be freestyle but we will try and collect as many different styles of dance, variety of age male and female dancers. The clips would be edited together using split screen. The clips would slide on and of the screen at different times pushing other clips of or onto the screen. It would also occasionally at the appropriate time cut back to one character in different locations, moor, town, school, shop, in a car lip syncing to the track.
The location for the mini vid is in a gym, similar to the one in the Britney Spears - Hit Me Baby One More Time video. There is a talent show being held. There is a medium close up shot of a presenter for the show looking into the camera, she says "And now its time for the (bands name) with Run DMC's Its Tricky!" Then there is a panning shot which moves to a long 3 man shot of the band all doing the same dance, rather humorous for comedic purposes. Then when the lead vocals come on, the first band member will break away from the dance and move around the gym, singing the lyrics. There will be break away shots of the audience enjoying the performance. Then when it goes back to the chorus, the band member will join the group. When the second individual vocals come on, the second band member will do the same and then the third. Throughout the mini vid, there will be a series of close up shots and medium shots to gain shot variety. When all three of the band members have had their individual vocals and all 3 are back into their position doing the same dance, they will break away from each other, start freestyling and have a dance off. The audience and crowds which surround the group will clap and cheer and begin to descend onto the "dancefloor" in which the shot will pan out back to the presenter, claiming that the band singing tricky have won the competition. The shot will then fade out.
Being specific about what your vision is, knowing the different shots you want to use, being organised with location, filming schedules, roles, mise-en-scene (props, costume etc)
what are the key steps involved in R+P?
Researching former videos, or UGC to possibly be inspired by others productions. Making sure all of the planning is exactly what you want and everything is organised so if something were to go wrong in the process it would be dealt with efficiently.
if this had been the actual coursework, what would you have to add/improve (look at the assessment criteria) to get good marks for R+P?
I would have researched similar videos and bands. I would have chosen non media students to partake in the video so that it was more organised. The costume and props would have been thought of thoroughly and with care. I would have used call sheets and storyboards to back up my coursework. I would have used the camera with a tripod, and thought about many different varieties of shots rather than the extreme close ups, close up, medium close up and other shots used in the original shoot. More time would be spent on the editing of the product, thinking more carefully about different effects and transitions.
what can you say now about the roles of cinematographer, director, producer? is it important to have one person taking responsibility for each of these roles?
I think that all three roles should be covered, but who is covering them does not matter that much. For example, i think that if the director wanted to be in the film itself for some part, there is no reason why the producer couldn't take over the filming for the product. Of course, in a commercial, large project for a famous singer, this would not be the same. But for A level students i think this is perfectly acceptable, at least this way, the different people in the group get to experience the different roles in the creation of the product.
related to the last point, was your shoot well organised?
I believe it was. We had planned the location, mise-en-scene and different roles. However we had not figured out the exact choreography for the film. But this did not bring an issue as Tom, who was in most of the mini vid as a protagonist, had a vision of what he thought "free" could resemble, in which the other people in the group went with.
what can/did go wrong on a shoot, and what steps help you overcome such problems (better still, prevent them from happening in the first place!)?
The main problem in which we had in the shoot is that we did not take a tripod with us, which is a mistake in which we will not make again. Although there was nothing wrong with the footage, i think that the filming would have run more smoothly with one. It may also be a good idea to have choreography before we create the film next time, just incase it turns out to be an issue (which it wasn't in our i feel free project)
did shoots take more/less time than you estimated?
We thought that our shooting may take the whole of the Tuesdays hour lesson and possibly run into the Wednesday lesson. However, seeing as we were shooting for around 45 seconds of the song only, the shoot went rather quickly as we believed we had all the footage that we needed to create the mini vid.
what difference does working with HD as opposed to mini-DV make?
The footage looked better, as the camera was better quality.
is it necessary to stick to a genre you're familiar with to have a good idea?
No i don't believe it is. As the genre in which i am interested in is not the same as the song in which we shot for. I believe that if you listen to the song you're supposed to be creating the mini vid for, for around 4 times, an idea will emerge.
what issues are raised by working within a group?
There were no major issues, apart from the different members of the group all having different ideas in which some of the others may not have agreed with or we all wanted our idea to be used, but did not have enough time in the song to fit them all in. However i think this small issue was tackled rather well as we managed to get all ideas filmed, and the main ones were added into the mini vid.
do you think you could manage a full music video production single-handed?
No. I think that an official role of the producer, director and cinematographer will be needed. Perhaps the director and producer could collaborate to make the job easier, however i think a minimum of 2 people would be needed to create a mini vid.
what more have you learned about Final Cut Express?
How many different effects you can use. Although imovie is quicker, i believe overall that Final Cut express will deliver a better mini vid in the end.
how many shots do you now think a good music vid will have for every 30 seconds of screen time?
I think that the shots need to change rather efficiently. Perhaps every 5-7 seconds to create a post modern experience for the viewer and keep them from being bored.
did you shoot each planned shots repeatedly (from different angles)? did you need to shoot more sequences repeatedly to create better shot variation for editing a dynamic video?
We did not shoot each shot from different angles as we had no choreography chosen. We did re-shoot some shots if we thought we could do them better, or to use from a different angle.
anything else that occurs to you (eg importance of mise-en-scene and locations; pre-preparing cast with lines + basic direction; having loud portable media player to play track when shooting, dance choreography if relevant etc etc)?
We did not have the music with us when shooting the footage, i think that it would have been better if we had, but as we had all listened to the song before, we all knew what type of song is was and all had the same vision of what we wanted to shoot.
On tuesday 19th, my role was to direct the shoot, as well as be filmed in some of it, as the whole group had to appear in the shoot. I enjoyed the shoot and thought that it worked quite well. I was away on Wednesday 20th at a Manchester Met open day so unfortunately could not work on editing the footage with the rest of the group. And on Thursday 21st we did not have a media lesson due to the Leeds Met next steps fair. However today, Friday 22nd, i have looked at the footage and like what the boys have edited. Editing in special effects such as layering and humorous effects to make the video more comedic will be edited in to add to the "freeness" of the video.
I felt that the HD cameras were no harder to use than the non HD cameras that we used in our AS coursework. The cameras were better quality and the overall footage, i think will look better than if we used a non HD camera. It was a new experience, using the HD cameras. I thought that they worked very well and found that they were not too difficult to obtain or use. When uploading the footage, i thought that they worked in the same way as the AS cameras. I had no problems with them.
Today we filmed the I Feel Free mini vid by Cream. I felt that it went well as the whole group knew our roles of the filming. We all cooperated. The only problem i found, was trying to film steady shots with the camera, as we had forgotten to bring the tripod out. The location was easy to access and it was spacious. There were no other people there but the group which allowed us to take full advantage of the location. We filmed for around 1 hour. The protagonist of the film, Tom Cassani, had no set actions. We simply chose what actions to do whilst there which i think worked well for the short period of time we had to decide. I think that the shot of Sam, Tom and Dillon on the 3 rocks worked specifically well. The different humorous shots of Tom dancing around and running emphasize the point of the video, the fact that he feels free.
Myself, Tom Cassani, Dillon O'Connor and Sam Daffern got into a group to create a Mini Vid of Cream's song: I Feel Free.
When planning the Mini Vid, looked upon issues such as
Location: Park, Green area, pavement. No urban setting such as a main street, as we are trying to emphasize the "freeness" of the video to go with the lyrics.
Filming Roles: Tom Cassani is the protagonist of the video. Georgia Barningham is the director of the video (however appears in the mini vid once) Sam Daffern is a character in the mini vid, as well as filming a part of the mini vid. Dillon O'connor stars in the mini vid as well as directs part of the mini vid.
mise-en-scene: Different props used could be a walking stick, as Tom uses it as a prop to dance with. The costume is more of the characters original clothing, to make the process easier. We also thought that our clothing was not inappropriate for the task.
The filming will take place on Tuesday 19th of June up by school, near the Craiglands hotel so it is easier to get back to the media room and upload the footage.
When editing the footage, we will add effects to make the video more comical, such as deforming the face, or making the footage go backwards.
I had two ideas to create a mini-vid of When Will I Be Famous.
My first idea, was that the lead singer was in front of a green screen. The background of the green screen changes to different scenes which change into real scenarios. E.g. a man is sat on a park bench reading the Karl Marx book, the transition is then made to this being a real life scenario.
During the chorus, the green screen will change into a disco, where the lead singer will have sunglasses on and dance in front of the green screen.
My second idea was that the scene opens with a close up shot of the lead singer lying in bed. The shot then rotates and begins to move out turning into a medium shot, and then a long shot. The lead singer gets out of bed and begins to walk around a very large house. The singer looks out of the window to a load of screaming fans. The singer then walks around the house, picking up different objects which go with the lyrics, e.g. a newspaper. There is shot variety depending on the close up of different objects e.g. the Karl Marx book. The video would end with the protagonist of the music video leaving their home and running out into the space where all the fans were previously, to find an empty street.
My idea for a minivid of The Doors - People are strange, was a medium shot of the main singer in the band on an urban street e.g. leeds briggate street. A flood of people would walk beside/into the main singer, with straight faces, wearing business wear, both men and women. This would indicate that 'people are strange'. This shot would be continuos throughout the song, however there would also be another scene where the main singer would be in front of a green screen, walking on clouds. This scene would appear when the band sung the chorus.
The video is set in black and white.
The video begins with a close up shot of the singer, Azealia Banks against a brick wall.
The shot then moves to a low angle extreme long shot of an urban setting and a traffic light in the centre of the shot.
The next shot is a 2 shot close up of a white male and Azealia facing him.
The next shot is a POV shot of somebody walking down a supermarket isle.
After this, is an extreme close up of Azealia's mouth.
An extreme longshot of a large house with 2 cars parked outside is shown.
The shot then moves back to the brick wall, with a medium shot of Azealia and a black young male dancing across the shot.
Then there is a close up shot of Azealia against a brick wall, this is when she starts singing "Hey, i can be the answer..."
The shot then alternates between the close up, the 2 shot of Azealia and the boy dancing, and an extreme close up of Azealia singing. The black and white makes Azealias teeth look striking.
When the lyrics "I guess that c*** getting eaten" are being sung, the lyrics appear on a black screen in a white, serif font.
The shots then move back to the medium close up and the extreme close up shots.
When the lyrics "212" are sung, a medium close up of a male putting 2 fingers up at the camera is shown.
A medium long shot is shown of Azealia against a wall, showing that she is wearing a micky mouse jumper and shorts, which may be part of the sex appeal of the photo. She dances in the shot.
An extreme close up is then shown to emphasise the lyrics in which she is singing.
The 2 shot of Azealia and the white male is shown again, she appears to be singing to the male.
Different shots of the medium long shots, medium close up shots and extreme close up shots are shown.
When the lyrics "Ima ruin you c***" are sung, a white background appears and black serif font shows up with the lyrics. It flickers on and off the screen. This also happens when she sings "AYO"
Different transitions are used such as fade in and outs to connect the different shots.
A POV shot of the black male is shown as he begins to dance.
The shots then move back to alternating the extreme close up, close up and medium close up shots are shown.
A long shot of a park chair is shown
The shot then moves to the POV shot of the grocery store.
The shot ends with Azealias medium long shot of her dancing.
No reggae music which involves homophobia e.g songs about "batty boys"
Nudity scenes should be kept discreet
The lyrics should be in English
Length - The song cannot be too short, as the exam board may think that the students are being lazy about the amount of work in which they will need to do for the length of the track. However the music video cannot be too long either, it should be around 3-4 minutes.
You can pick whatever track you would like. However the exam board ask that there must be evidence of asking the company who created the track for permission to use that track (even if they say no)
The first music video to be aired on MTV was The Buggles - Radio Star. The video is mainly performance, nowadays, we exect videos to have narrative, compared to this video which has very little.
There are long takes and slow pace editing in the Radio Star video.
INFORMATION:
MTV is seen as creating the expectation for fast pace editing.
If you're creating something for a youthful audience, you must make it fast paced.
Cars saved radio. When drivers and passengers are travelling, most of them enjoy listening to the radio.
MTV hardly show music videos anymore, this is because youtube are well known for doing this.
Michael Jackson - Thriller is a SHORT FILM (13 minutes long) and is one of the most expensive music videos ever made.
Intertextuality is a part of post modernism in which "thriller" was involved with. MJ saw "American Warewolf In London" and hired the director for Thriller.
"Teen Wolf" was also then inspired by "Thriller"
There is 1 single take in the short film that lasts one whole minute.
I looked at Harriet Hardings blog which covered Girls Aloud song JUMP.
My thoughts on this blog were that it was rather similar to the layout of the AS blogs, and the running of the blog was also rather a like in that there was a final cut, rough cuts, audience feedback, research and other similar aspects involved.
AS and A2 obviously differ in many ways. For example the brief and topic.
Some things in which harriet did were:
Appealed to her intended audience well, by thinking about the genre of her music and what that age group may find interesting e.g. she used glitter in her music video. She also did not use alcohol in the party scene.
She included a "how to make a digipak" post to help further years when creating their own.
She got a lot more feedback than I did in AS. For example, she used opportunities such as the vertical learning to gain varied and widespread research and feedback on her product.
Good use of links lists
A lot of different sites were used to help with the blog e.g. prezi, scribd, final cut and divshare
She used a lot of research which did not just focus on Girls Aloud, for example she used Rihanna and the saturdays in her research to gain more of an understanding of the female artist pop culture.
"A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following options:
1) A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
2) A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package); "
At A2 you produce a portfolio of productions: a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: a website homepage for the band; a digipak for the album’s release; a magazine advertisement for the digipak. So, that's a music video as your main text, plus two 'ancillary texts' linked to this.
