Final song choice

Our final song choice is Misha B - Where did we go. This song was chosen because we felt the sound and voice behind the song would best match Bernice's face. We also picked this song because we felt a lot of people in our media year had chosen to do either rap or pop songs and hardly anyone had chosen to do a song within the R&B genre. After listening to the song repeatedly, we started to notice speed changes as well as moments in the song where there was no sound at all and we became excited as the sound of the song brought forth many ideas. I am very excited about bringing all our ideas to life and as this song has no music video as it stands this will be a great opportunity for my group and I to create something amazing.

Click the soundcloud link below to have a listen to the song for yourself!

Misha B - Where Did We Go

skills audit

in AS I learnt different skills such as editing and using different media to make the blog look more interesting for the research and planning because just a plain paragrap isnt that intresting so i will keep using differnt media to make the blog look much better than last year by adding loads of different types of presentation websites and animation websites to make the blog look more visual. I will try to use emaze, prezi,animoto,timetoast, pow toon and many more that is compatable with blogger.

Short list of potential songs

Here are a list of some songs by british artists which we may potentially choose from to be our actual song for our music video:

Indie vs Mainstream

Reflection on progress

I feel I've made a lot of progress when I compare my blogging from last year to this year. Last year some of my blog posts were rather vague, however this year I have challenged myself to use some sort of technology in every one of my blog posts and in the ones where I haven't used technology I have always been sure to include some sort of picture just to break to writing up and make my blog posts more interesting to read.  If I were to give myself a mark out of 20 for my use of different ICT as well the detail within my blogging I'd give myself a 15 marks simply because I have done my utmost best to use wide range of different ICT such as emaze, prezi, powtoon, slideshare, thinglink etc. I have also done my best to make sure each blog post is done thoroughly. For example, instead of writing one or two sentences to answer a question, I'll write at least a paragraph or more.

What 3 things do I need to improve on?

1) Firstly, I need to keep up to date with all my blogging and make sure I stay on track. To enable I do this I will make sure I blog at least once every day to reduce to pressure and make use of the blogging task to-do list given to me by my teachers and tick off the tasks as I do them to stay organised.

2) Secondly, I need to not only be doing the bare minimum but challenge myself to do extra blog posts other than the ones I'm told to do. This means blogging about anything that I feel may be of relevance such as the editing process, behind the scenes etc.

3) Thirdly, I need to explore and find about more technologies that I am not currently using and use them in order to maximise my use of different ICT programs. I can do this by finding out from my peers and teachers what other forms of technology I haven't yet used.

Analysis of music videos

G-Dragon crooked


Arctic Monkeys-


Paramore-misery buissness

Skills Audit

When I think back to the research that I conducted for my AS practical work, I can definitely say that my skills in research have improved immensely. Last year, part of my research included exploring all the different conventions that could be found in teen films. I had to look at a number of teen films such as 'Johnny Darko', 'Not another teen movie' and 'The Breakfast Club' and identify all the different characters and stereotypes that came up within each of them. I had to then use this information to come up with a concept for the opening of a teen film myself. My group and I decided to look through similar teen films to our own genre such as 'Kidulthood' and 'Ill Manors' on Youtube and use these to help us create our own film opening. I used the college cameras to film and then went on to edit the footage using final cut pro. Lastly, I had to use social media such as twitter and facebook to promote the film. At the end of the year, my groups film opening was screened at a cinema called 'The screen' in Angel and the feedback that my peers gave me showed that they really enjoyed my group's work.

 

 

Since then I have discovered many more online presentation tools such as Slidely and Emaze and have challenged myself to use several ICT programs that I struggled to use last year such as camtasia and powtoon. Last year I watched films similar to the one I was trying to create for inspiration and this year I plan to do the same. I don't want to copy any videos that are already out there, but I want to use conventions from the music videos that  I watch on Youtube that are successful, to make sure that this year my group's music video is also a success. This year I will also be using social media such as twitter, facebook, instagram and vimeo to promote my music video.

 

 

Synergy activity homework

Evaluation of lip sync tutorial

In this lip sync lesson we were given a music video by a band and had to cut between different shots and create a video which looked realistically believable. After this lesson I know know that when it comes to editing I have to:

- Mark every shot at the same point of the song (e.g. the first word)
- Using basetrack editing will make life so much easier (laying the tracks on top of each other and using the snipping tool to cut between them)
- And cutting to the beat for added effect

This is in line with some of Vernallis' theory where she states that:

-Editing should be clear and obvious
- Special effects can also be used
- To use basetrack and continuity whilst editing

Mainstream VS Independant

digipak examples

Carol Vernallis

 In the music video for somewhere only we know the base tracks are in the woods and in the car. there are many obvious edits such as fades in the car as you can see 2 scences at a time when hes in the car and you can see the woods as well.

Andrew Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwins theory is when that pop videos dont have the same structure to everyone else and that the singer is usually used to illustrate a character to tell a story or show them being the main focus. Pop videos are very repeptative as they use the same base tracks for the verse chorus and bridge

Illustration is used for the audience to get a feel of the song whether its as sad song or a happy song e.g the happy song would have people dancing and laughing and in a sad song they would be crying or having rain to sygnify that something bad has happned.



Amplification is when the lyrics and video completely match each other for example if the song says i walked across and in the video the singer is walking. payphone is a great example as he is calling straight from a payphone and the lyrics are abouit calling froma payphone.



 Disjuncture is when the lyrics and song dont match at all and are different to each other. This song talks about love and the lyrics are saying "ill be there as soon as i can" but it doesnt show him running to the woman he loves but does show couples 

Editing on Final cut pro

today I edited the live performance.

first i had to make all the different base tracks match by putting a marker on a specific lyric on each base track .

after that i had to cut the footage so it would go from one base track to another.

it went from all three of them singing to the drummer when the song dynamics started to build up. To a close up of the main singer singing.

in the chorus i the backing vocals came in and i changed it to a close up the bass player as he gets closer to the microphone so that in the footage you can see who does the backing vocals.

Research for Music Videos: Practising Lip syncing

After watching an example of how to go around the editing of lip syncing, I went on final cut pro to have a practise myself. I did find the whole experience hard to do as I was a bit still rough with editing on the computer, I simply started off by listening to the audio, to get a feel of the visuals I would expect to see and use. This then led me to watch all the clips and establish which shots I would and wouldn't use. Most of the shots of film were shot from one angle (right, left or center) or would focus on a certain subject (the singer or instruments) for the whole song, I think this will be handy when it comes to shooting our own music video, as it will allow us to experiment. 

I then began to place the shots into a specific order, I try to follow the fast pace of the song and matching the visuals to the sound (guitar solo can be heard, shot of artist playing it). On a whole i think I did well but still need a little bit more practise until i am fully confident with this style of editing.  Below I managed to put some screenshots from when I was editing.

purpose of a music video

Costume, Setting and prop activity (Group task)

Laura Mulvey theory

Based on Laura Mulvey representation of women in the media is that women are only for male pleasure, her theory applys to musc videos too as the video producers have the ideal appearance for women so they make that ideal image come true so that other men can also have the pleasure of seeing the women. women are seen like this in pop videos,RnB music videos, grime music videos and rap videos.

These two videos are great examples of this as you can only see this theory:

Enrique iglesias walks into a striper club and they are half naked and he goes from one woman to another woman to being surrounded by a pile of women.When ludacris is in the cab hes with women around him.





Women epoil themselves to sell more music and get more views on their music videos as music videos sells the artist and promotes them, so women feel the need to catch up with this.

Review of previous student video

Valeza, Jessica, Erika and Stavroulla - 2011


Valeza, Jessica, Erika, Stavroulla from 283goswell on 
Dipika, Eda, Alia, Judith from 283goswell on Vimeo.
Vimeo.

The genre for this group's song is Dubstep and the intended audience are young people between the ages of 13-25. The music video is very effective are she is stares into the camera lens frequently to really connect with her audience. There are numerous selective framing shots where the camera focuses on different parts of her face e.g. lips, eyes, half of her face etc. What I really like about the video is that it is jam packed with close ups to keep the audience engaged.

The black and white effect is also very effective as it isn't too desaturated so it works very well. The choreographed part of the music video is also great in terms of performance and it was shot beautifully. I also loved how this group's video was so well edited to the beat.


The password to view the next video is 'student' :)


This group decided to make a music video to the song let it go by passenger. As they have used "amplification", the lyrics are well interpreted through the various camera shots such as close ups and mid shots to show the emotion in the artist's face. Camera movement such as panning and tracking makes it easier to watch the video and makes the shots less static and help them to flow more smoothly. It is edited to the beat of the song which adds to the continuity of the video (as carol vernallis' theory points out). Unlike the previous video, the video is edited a lot slower although still to the beat of the song. I loved the narrative of this video and hope to incorporate narration in my music video also.

Research for Music Video: Analysis of costume,setting and location in music videos

Video 1
Beyonce: Flawless

Mulvey's Theory

Laura Mulvey's theory is centered around 'The Male Gaze'. In her theory she describes how the audience or viewer is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey states that in videos, women are typically the objects rather than the possessors of the gaze because the control of the camera comes form factors such as the assumption that heterosexual males are the target audience for most music video genres. An example of the male gaze would be the camera focusing or lingering on the curves of a woman's body.

The make gaze typically focuses on:

• Emphasising curves of the female body
• Referring to women as objects rather than people
• The display of women and how men think they should be perceived
• The female viewers viewing the content through the eyes of men

Mulvey also argues that in mainstream cinema, the male gaze typically overrides the female gaze, reflecting an underlying power imbalance.

Take for example Dizzee Rascal's Music video for his song Holiday. 

 

The video starts with a woman walking down a beach wearing a skimpy green bikini. Shortly after we see Dizzee rascal dancing with champagne as he goes on to rap his first lyric 'Get your passport and your bikini'. The mere fact that this is the first line of the song already goes to show how object-like women are being seen in this video. The shot then switches the to the same girl from the beginning tilting up and down her thighs, bum and back almost like a pair of eyes eyeing her up. She rings the door bell and waits to be let in. As the door opens a guy is on the other side and the first and only thing he looks at is her body almost as if to suggest that he is only interested in one thing - Sex. As Dizzee raps the camera begins to pan and all you can see is a group of girls all in bikini's dancing around him. From this we can infer two things. Firstly, women who are being used as props for the video implying that women are only in existence to perform rather than compliment men. And secondly, that women may feel pressure to look and dress a certain way in order to please and feel accepted by men.

Another music video which supports Laura Mulvey's theory Superbass by Nicki Minaj.

The video starts with a close up of the artists face all dolled up and plastic looking. She has a pink/blonde wig, bright blue contacts and a full face of makeup (imperfection free) in which she seems to resemble a Barbie doll. This is a delusional way of thinking as no one is perfect yet due to
the male gaze along with the intense pressure from society women are always wanting to look a
 certain all with the hopes of attaining the media's take on perfection which in reality doesn't exist. A little further on the video, the artist is in a rather provocative outfit. Her chest is protruding out of her vest and shorter than short shorts are opened at the zip. It all seems to me that this is a cry for a attention from men with all the suggestive wear that she has on. Similar to Nicki Minaj, many women today are desperate to feel wanted and accepted by men even if it means wearing the bare minimum. Lyrics in the song such 'He just gotta give me that look, when he give me that look then the panties coming off' just goes to show what lengths they will go for attention from men.

Carol Vernalis research

Blogging Task on Andrew Goodwin

According to Andrew Goodwin's theory, there are three types of relations between songs and videos: Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture. Illustration is where the mood of the song is expressed through dance. Amplification is where the video adds meaning to the song and Disjuncture is where the video and song aren't necessarily related.

Lmfao - Party Rock Aanthem is a prime example of Illustration as the song is upbeat with a fast tempo which correlates to the enthusiastic break dancing moves in the music video.

Next, we have an example of Amplification through the song Katy Perry - Roar. The song is set in a jungle with animals which correlates to the song title 'Roar' but also expands into another meaning: One of confidence. As she stands in the midst of many animals, some of which we know to be dangerous, she shows her confidence.

An example of disjuncture would be Lady Gaga - Bad Romance as the song is about a bad relationship in which she stills seeks love. However in the video she seems to be wearing quite weird outfits and the storyline doesn't seem to make sense at all. Most if not all of Lady Gaga's music videos are examples of disjuncture as she herself is a very spontaneous artist.

Research for music video: My summary on Mulvey's theory on representation

Research for music video: Carol Vernallis research

Carol Vernallis studied camerawork and editing in music videos, within her study she noticed how edits in music videos occur more than in films, that a lot of edit in music videos were of a disjuncture and also that the editing was rhythmic and closely connected to the song.

Main observations:

• Continuity editing is broken, which draws more attention to what's on screen for viewers
• The edits are obvious! As this brings attention certain aspects, these obvious edit can be special effects or wipes.
• A base track (master shot) is used frequently to give a structure to the video
• The camera usually moves in time with music
• Jump cuts are commonly used a lot
  
  Some examples I have found:

Frank Ocean - Pyramids

This is a good example as I have found the edit of slow motion as well as special effects being used. The slow motion matches the chilled relax vibe the song gives and it also seen consistently throughout the whole song, it has been used when he is walking to when he riding the motorcycle and to when he is in a club. The use of special effects used are of credits which is done in post production, this is starting to become a regular thing to see in music videos now days, as it helps the artist be more known to new fans and gain some publicity within he industry. I also noticed a special effect that makes him look like he is melting away and so are his surroundings is used several times and makes the video more appealing to viewers as it is different. Some images/gifs from the video to showcase the examples I have found.

Beyonce - Flawless

FKA Twigs - Two weeks

Copyright Clearance

I decided to email the manager of The Hoosiers which are a British pop/rock band.

Skills I have learnt in As

In As media i was able to learn different technical skills such as:

- Filming

- How to make a blogg lookintresting by using different online websites such as prezi, animoto

- Camera angles

 Editing on final cut pro:

- Adjusting the colour balance

- Adding sound

- Removing sound

- Cutting footsge 

As introduction to A2 music videos

In June I learnt about music videos by analysing a song by kings of leon. I made notes of the editing, lipsynching, special effects,costume, structure and generic signifiers. i had to talk about the factors of the video which make it fit the stereotype of the rock genre such as preformance, props(guitars, bass, drumkit), clothing ect. We also looked at other music videos to compare the different genres and what factors make up that specific genre. we also had to make a powerpoint presentation as a group on any music video we wanted and analyse it all in detail.

We looked at the one of the first music videos "video killed the radio star" and what is different from then and now and how far we have advanced from the  first music videos.

Research for music video: Summary of Andrew Goodwin's theory (dancing in the distraction factory)

Research for music video: What is the function of a music video?

Music videos serve different beneficial purposes, which are to help boost the artist/band by promoting the song (single) which is taken from their album and also to produce visual pleasure for their audience. Most music videos are uploaded onto popular websites or shared on social music platforms, such as Youtube, Noisey and Vevo (big music channel on youtube), by doing this the music video can be watched from anywhere and as many times as desired, this is a great way to promote the artist/bands new and older music.
These music videos needs to sell the song so viewers can remember it, this can be done by having the visuals/narrative in the music video match to the song lyrics or focus more on the pure pleasure of entertaining the audience through the artist physical features (body or facial beauty) or their actual musical talent! Music videos don't make any money, it is a way to make the artist/band more known into the music industry, it will help them gain more fans which would lead to these fans purchasing their music and them making money. Below is one video that I think is a good example of a music video form:

Don Broco are an alternative rock band, this video isn't based off a story, it simple focuses on the bands musical abilities and doesn't focus on their physical appearance . Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that consists of vocals, guitar, drums and piano. It focuses on the artist and doesn't usually have a story/narrative. They use a lot of close ups which helps to establish each member's role, close ups of the lead singer, mid shots of the drummer or guitarist and then wide shots of the whole band performing. All of this is presented nicely in the music video by Don Broco (You Wanna Know), they have also taken a little bit of an artist approach by adding a soft pink backlight behind them which makes the video appear more aesthetically pleasing. The editing and camera movement  is in time with the music, the song is fast so the editing has to match up to the pace also at some points the song slows down, making the vocals the main focus and so the camera holds still and is focusing on the lead singer, who is also looking directly into the camera which breaks down the fourth wall. The members are also moving/ dancing when they perform, which makes the video more entertaining for viewers even though it is not in a choreographed way but more 'natural', as they are simply enjoying their music, this can also make viewers sing along to the song or even dance, which I think is the effect a good music video has on a viewer.

Research for music video: Copyright clearance

Over our summer holiday we had to email music companies of our chosen artist, for copyright clearance to use their song. I emailed several companies and none have replied, but I have taken screenshots (see below) of the email I sent, just for evidence just in case there is a problem later on. The email just states that

Reflecting back on the AS year: Technical skills I learned

In AS media I learned a variety of technical skills, which I also think will be beneficial for me to use this year when it comes to making our music videos. Below I have made some bullet points on the skills I have acquired:

• Filming(how to use a camera properly)

- Focusing the camera
- Holding the camera right

• Editing 

- Cutting footage to make the shot more refined
- Removing/adding sound
- Learning to use final cut pro
- Adding special effects (I had a split screen effect showing two clips at the same time)

• Experimenting with camera angles 
• Being prepared with a well planned out storyboard
• Using/learning about creative commons (Which will come in handy for this year)
• Adjusting the lighting when filming

- Also when editing (colour balance)

• Mise-En-Scene
• How to incorporated other technologies onto my blog to make it stand out and more interesting (by using prezi, emaze, gifs, powtoon and many more)
• Being able to work as a team but also independently 

Reflecting back on the AS year: What I learned about music videos in AS for A2

Going a few months back to June of this year, I remember having a discussion and sharing ideas on 'music videos' with my AS class. We were shown how to analyse a music video properly from the start to finish and how to break it down into a specific genre and also highlighting the main points in the video that lead us into finding the specific genre it falls under and what makes it belong to that genre

We looked at stereotypical, event and successful music videos. A stereotypical music video that we looked at and analysed was 'video killed the radio star' as that is what is considered to be the first music video and we compared it to a few modern music videos and noticed how the technology has evolved (camera work and ideas mainly). Event music videos are videos that have a big budget, a good example I saw was Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video, which is fourteen minutes long and cost $5000,000 to produce. Last but not least successful music videos are ones that have been overly hyped (mostly through social media) or have a comedic purpose to it, a great example of this is 'Gangnam style', which also reigns as being the top music video in the world.

Also we analysed several videos and applied everything we had learn and made notes on the Mise-en-scene, special effects, lip synching, generic signifiers and structure. I analysed a video by 'the 1975' and had to talk about the genre they fit into, whic is Indie rock and we can tell this by the way they are dressed (similar colour scheme:black) and by the way they are performing (by playing live instruments). We also looked at another music video as a group and made a Prezi, showing how we analysed the video. See Prezi below.

Function of a music video

There are two main purposes for a music video. 

1.) To generate attention for the song/artist.
2.) To create visual pleasure for its audience and help to boost sales.

Music videos are consumed in many ways such as through YouTube, Television Music Channels, and online music websites such as Muzu and Vevo.



 

 

In this music video, Beyoncé is dressed in very skimpy outfits with show her slim figure which many young girls wish to have. There is also a lot of choreography in the music video which adds to the visual pleasure and ties hand in with the upbeat R n B genre the song. There are many close ups of her chest, waist and bum all of which are common in music videos as it helps to present her as a sex symbol giving her a unique selling point.

Copyright clearance

 

Above is screenshot of my evidence that over the holiday I got copyright clearance for my chosen song. The song I chose over the holidays was Misha B - Where did we go which is the song we ended up using for our music video.

Technical skills I developed

The skills that I was able to develop over the course of the AS year included the following:

1.) Being able to edit footage and create the beginning of a film using Final Cut pro.

2.) Being able to present my work on blogger through the use of online presentation software's such as Prezi, Slideshare, Timetoast, Animoto, Emaze, Mural and Thinglink.

3.) Using the biggest video sharing website YouTube to watch videos that were similar to what my group was trying to create.

4.) Using Quicktime to convert videos such as my pitch and pitch feedback so that it would be accessible to view on my blog.

5.) Also I used camtasia to edit audience research videos so as to make it more interesting to watch.

6.) I learnt how to screenshot my work, and upload the pictures to blogger to show evidence of me editing and so on.

7.) I learnt how audio grab my song so that it could be converted to a file which Final Cut pro recognised.

8.) I learnt how to import my footage and song onto Final Cut pro as well as render my project using the buttons (CMD + R)

9.) I learnt how to use the college camera to film my TV drama film intro as well as use the equipment that came with it such as the fig rig, tripod and dedo lights.

What I previously learnt about music videos

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!

Welcome to our blog we are group 18.