Music Video Questionnaire

The three main theories about media audiences.

Hypodermic Syringe/effect theory
The theory that the media influences certain audiences in different ways by 'injecting' them appropriate messages to trigger a desired response.

Uses and Gratification
This theory is an approach to understanding why and how people seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. It looks into the reason why we follow the media and watch it.

Two-Step Flow
The theory that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, that in turn are influenced by the mass media.

Mind map on Questionnaire

In the lesson, we started getting ideas on how we could structure our audience research questionnaires and the type of questions that could be asked, who we would ask etc.

RED HAIR

So me and Sophie decided that just having the white contacts for my character wasn't enough to show her transformation of rebellion. Therefore, we decided to have a change of hair colour being red to show how gradually she is turning rebellious and going off the rails. We chose the colour red instead of a colour like black as we want the red hair to contrast with the dark setting of our music video and also, the colour red is the colour associated with the 'devil'. We want to get across to the audience that the characters mood is constantly changing.

Digipak Ideas

Update on Final Cut Pro training and filming progress

Band Brand

Me and Sophie have decided that our artist name is The Blowout Being. The genre of our music is very Electronic and like Dubstep and people can dance to it so we associated these words with the word 'party' as this music is played a lot at raves. We then generated the word 'party' in an online thesaurus so that we could use a more abstract word. One word that appealed to us the most is 'Blowout' as you wouldn't normally call a rave or party something like that. As our artist is just one person, we looked up different words for 'party' as a noun and found the word 'being' which we liked as this added alliteration to our artist name and we feel that it makes the name more catchy.

Here are the names of the songs that we have chosen to use for our digipak:
1) Chasing Clouds
2) Flash
3) Roses Are Red
4) The Tide
5) Laces
6) In For The Kill
7) Cyclone
8) Whirlwind
9) Far Away
10) Stick People
11) Time Machine
12) Little Hurricane
13) Submission

We have chosen these names as most track list names from Electro/Dubstep artists are quite quirky and are sometimes only one word. We got our inspiration from artists like SBTRKT, Sub Focus, Metronomy etc.

Digipak Inspiration

Portishead

I like this digipak because of how the letter P is accentuated the most on the cover. I also like how there is a male in the foreground however we do not get to see his face. This gives the digipak a mysterious look as well as having the girl on the circular podium in the background. The simplicity of the digipak is just pleasing to the eye. In my opinion, the dark colors signify the sound of the music.

 SBTRKT

I like that SBTRKT's digipak is very interesting in terms of how the mask is used to convey an abstract vibe to the digipak. I think the colors of yellow and blue contrast well with the black background of the digipak. I also like the simplicity of the actual CD and the clean layout o the tracklist. I think the font type of the artist name at the back makes it look very quirky as well.

Chase and Status

I think that the way the dog has been incorporated into the digipak as the focus of the cover is interesting as it draws you in due to the actual artist not being revealed to you. Again, I also like how the yellow text contrasts with the cover. The fact that the pictures of the artists are on the inside of the digipak where the CD lays is good as there are multiple pictures which allows you to gain your own perspective of them.
 Lastly, I like how chunky the track list text is on the back.

Goffman's Theory

Goffman believes that men and women are portrayed by diferent codes and conventions in advertisement.

Goffman states that men are portrayed in a way that makes them look intelligent and dominant. Women are portrayed in a way that sexualises them with blank and inviting expressions in reclining poses.

On females, parts of the body like the chest area and the legs etc are shown to sell products which may not be realted to the body at all. They could be things like mobile phones etc. This is a sexist way to sell a product as the female is being focused on more than the product itself.

In TV advertisments, male voices are used in voice-overs rather than female voices as the male voice is seen as more dominant and controlling which Goffman beleves is a factor which allows the audience to want to listen.

Shots from our filming sessions.

First filming session with Contact lenses.

This is a vlog from last week when when we first filmed with the contact lenses. The deadline for the filming sessions of our music videos has been extended so that we have more time to expand on our ideas. It has been really hard to stick to our filming schedule as the weather has not been particularly great and things have been changing etc.

Storyboard Animation

Finally our internet at school is working now so we have been able to upload our Storyboard Animations. A lot of things have changed in our storyboard as we are not using all of the things that we planned.

BFI (Music Videos)

Today, we went to the BFI to help us with our music videos. The day consisted of being given guidelines by Pete Fraser on how to construct our music videos and also certain tips on how to achieve the best music video we can.
We watched some clips of music videos that have been created through the years from the 1920's. It was really interesting to see how much music videos have developed over time and how amazing the technology is that we have now. We were then given the changed through break to come up with a pitch as a class for a certain song. The song was called Behold The Hurricane by The Horrible Crowes. I really liked the song as I love the whole indie/rock genre of music. After lunch, we presented our pitches which I thought was effective as it gave us a chance to see what other ideas the pupils from the other school's had. For the second half of the day, a director called Corin Hardy came in to talk to us about his work and have a Q&A session. He has directed music videos from the likes of Olly Murs to Biffy Clyro. He also directed the music video that we had to do a pitch for. The music video in the end was very interesting and our pitch was completely different to his perception of it. He really made us realize how much preparation and money goes into making a music video and that filming a video takes up a lot of time.

Digipak

A Digipak is a style of DVD/CD/BD packaging. The style is like a book or a paperboard which can have lots of panels e.g. 4, 6, 8 etc to hold booklets, disks etc. Nowadays, Digipak's are used as much as jewel cases as they are easier to use and are environmentally friendly. They are less likely to crack/smash. They are often used for special edition's of singles/albums. The features of a Digipak are the tracklist, logo, parental advisory sticker if necessary, bar code, artist pictures, thank you messages, album title, booklet containing lyrics, awards won, the name of the record label, price, copyright logo, the album/artsit name on the spine of the digipak, holographic sticker and quotations..

Our digipak is going to consist of 4 panels: The front, 2 in the inside and the back panel. We think that it will be better to just have 4 panels as it will look simple and not too crammed.

Contact Lenses

Sophie has ordered the white contact lenses for me and they came this morning. Sunday night we are meeting up to film so I can see how the contact lenses look and if they're suitable for our music video. We decided to use these in our music video as they portray our main character as a person who has gone off the rails and is rebellious. Viewers may even assume that our character could be a sign of horror. We believe that the contact lenses will be good to shock the audience as that is one of our aims of our music video.

Signifiers in our own music video

Signifiers on Prezi

Signifers in Raise Your Glass - P!nk

Signifiers
1. Plus size woman eating twinkie whilst sat next to skinny girls.
Shows that she doesn't care about the two other 'girls' next to her and will eat what she wants. Portrays self indulgence.

2.Youth's raising their glasses.
Showing free will and a personality trait being care free in society.

3.Montage of different people.
This signifier shows that all people are different and it is a sign of individuality.

4.Paper Lanterns.
A sign of freedom and carelessness. These can be used for sending messages etc.

5. P!nk flexing her muscle.
Showing that she is strong and no one will bring her down. Also a sign of confidence.

Ferdinand De Saussure and Roland Barthes theories on Signifiers, the Signified and Symbolic Codes.

In Tuesday's lesson, we focused on the theories to do with Symbolic codes, Signifiers and the Signified.
Ferdinand Se Saussure's theory was that the signifier is the physical form which we can see or hear for example words, diagram, picture, music etc.
The signified is the meaning which we attach to the signifier i.e. learner driver - Symbol: L sign.
Roland Barthes added to this theory by Ferdinand and called the way that these Signifiers were organized and put together the 'Symbolic Codes'.

LED Light and Mount

Vlog about first filming session.

Shooting Schedule

This is our shooting schedule for our music video. We will most probably have more shooting days than this. These are the days that are definitely happening at the moment.

Filming Schedule

6 storyboard ideas enlarged.

Here are just some of the ideas from mine and Sophie's storyboard explained in more detail.

Finished storyboard.

Vlog about ideas from storyboard.

Framing and Composition

Today in this lesson, we touched upon framing and composition; mostly focusing on rule of thirds.
The rule of thirds is a guideline which is applied to the process of composing visual images. When using the rule of thirds, you need to bear in mind that the purpose of it is to intersect the part of the image that you want into one of the nine equal parts.
Also when using the rule of thirds, the eyeline rule is very important as the eyes have to be a 1/3 of the way down in the shot and there must be enough headroom. This is why the lines in the rule of thirds play an important role; especially diagonal lines as when we view things that are diagonal, we are automatically drawn to where the line is leading to.

Framing and composition as a whole is key when shooting a film/music video as different frames and ways of composing a shot makes the piece more diverse and pleasing to the eye. Some things to consider when shooting for us are going to be high and low angle shots, viewpoint, audience, and diagonal lines.

Nearly finished...

So me and Sophie have nearly finished story boarding. We have just over a minute left of the song to do. Although story boarding is a long process, I am really enjoying it as it allows me and Sophie to be more creative and to think outside of the box. We feel that we have come up with some really good ideas that we are capable to do. Some of these consist of panning shots of location, establishing shots, extreme close-up shots and close-up shots to portray emotion, split screen to show a montage of shots being the good and bad parts of relationships etc, low-angle/high angle shots to create different levels and more. We know that some of the things that we have story boarded may not work but as a team, we are willing to try things out and see how they work. Once we have finished story boarding, me and Sophie are going to film some things together so that we get the feel of filming again and to develop some of our ideas.

Story boarding progress.

So far, this is what me and Sophie have put together for our story board. We still have a fair amount to do by the 19th but we feel that we have got some great ideas for our music video like a montage of fast shots to represent reminiscing, extreme close-up shots for lip syncing and slow motion effects to give an abstract effect to a certain part of the video. Once we have finished our story board, we hope to start filming and geting things together!

Voyeurism

In today's lesson, we got given the task to research and think about Voyeurism. Voyeurism is the idea that us as an audience watch certain things because they give us pleasure and we enjoy watching them etc. The term Voyeurism is seen as the sexual interest in things we watch e.g sexual behaviour, undressing etc. We are all seen as Voyeurs as we may all watch things that interest us and that give us endearment. For men, they may watch something like this:


The women in this video are being objectified as sex objects by the way they are moving and acting.
On the other hand, women may get their enjoyment out of something like this:

This may appeal to women as it is a typical boy meets girl story and this is seen as romantic.

LED light

To create the shadows and other light for when we are in a dark environment, we are planning to buy and use an LED light which we can attach to our camera. We have vlogged to explain how we are going to use it, how much it is etc.

We got the inspiration of using the LED light from Professor Green's music video 'Remedy' as he used this in his video and me and Sophie both agreed that it looked good and steered away from natural light.

Treatment

We have finally come up with some ideas for our chosen song for our music video which we have explained in our treatment task. Enjoy!


Treatment

Storyboarding

Last year, one key thing that we all had to do for our film openings at AS was to storyboard. We did this to jot down any ideas that we had for our film openings. Doing this also helps with the process of planning. Whilst storyboarding, we jotted down things like our film production ideas and all our different shots that we had in mind. Some of these things that we thought of, we didn't even use which is a disadvantage of storyboarding however, it is always good to have things that didn't work so that we learn what things look better etc. This year for our A2 music videos, I will ensure that our storyboards are clear and affective and also, I aim to have more ideas than we need because I would rather have a lot where we don't end up using some of them rather than not have enough ideas to use. I enjoy storyboarding as it plays an important part in planning and it is also a quick way to develop ideas.

Emailing the record label of our chosen song.

Mood Board

Click on image to enlarge.

We have decided to go for a dark, gloomy approach for our mood board as this is how we interpreted our chosen song. As the song has quite a mysterious and edgy sound to it, our aim is to make the audience want more and for them to question certain things about it when they watch the video. Our locations will hopefully consist of fields, dark alleys and abandoned areas. Also, as the song could be seen as a clubby, alternative song, we may even decide to have the music video in a bar/club for some parts. Clothing and make-up wise, we want the clothes to also be dark to go with the mood of the song. We thought the clothes could be Doc Martens, leather jackets, jeans, etc. For make-up, we would again use dark make-up; especially smokey eyes and possibly red lips to give the person's look that edge in the video.

Rough Brainstorm

This is a rough mind map of our ideas for our music video. Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Music videos for inspiration

Midnight City - M83 is a good example of the type of music video we want to shoot as the lighting is ambient and dark which is exactly what we want. Also, the locations in the video relate to our chosen song as one of our ideas is to have a girl rebelling against society as an outcast after a broken relationship. The locations are fields, abandoned areas etc which would portray her mood etc.



Hold On - SBTRKT is another good one for establishing shots that we may use as they would portray an understanding of her feelings and emotions and whereabouts in the video. Also, this music video has a clear storyline which we would like ours to have.

Our Chosen Song

We have decided to choose the Skream remix of La Roux's In For The Kill. We decided to choose this song instead of the others as we could do whatever we wanted with this song as the lyrics could be interpreted to be about anything. Also, although we were looking at upbeat, catchy songs, we decided to take a different route and do a dark song so we could almost make it have a horror theme. We thought that this would be a fresh, different thing for the exam board to see.

Lyrics
La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Remix)

We can fight our desires
But when we start making fires
We get ever so hot
Whether we like it or not
They say we can love who we trust
But what is love without lust?
Two hearts with accurate devotions
And what are feelings without emotions?

I'm going in for the kill
I'm doing it for a thrill
Oh I'm hoping you'll understand
And not let go of my hand
[x2]

I hang my hopes out on the line
Will they be ready for you in time
If you leave them out too long
They'll be withered by this song
Full stops and exclamation marks
My words stumble before I start
How far can you send emotions?
Can this bridge cross the ocean?

I'm going in for the kill
I'm doing it for a thrill
Oh I'm hoping you'll understand
And not let go of my hand
[x2]

I'm going in for the kill
I'm doing it for a thrill
Oh I'm hoping you'll understand
And not let go of my hand

Song Ideas

Idea 1 - Brokenhearted - Karmin
For
1. We could change the narrative. It wouldn't have to include a typical boy etc.
2. It's upbeat with a quirky sound.
3. The artist is not very mainstream and well known, therefore we can make the video our own.

Against
1. Editing would maybe be limited.
2. Rapping may make it harder to lip sync.
3. The concept of the song is quite common (typical boy hasn't called girl back etc)

Idea 2 - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift
For
1. There's a good beat to it for continuity editing.
2. The lyrics are appropriate and many young people could relate to them.
3. The tone of the song is quite innocent so we could maybe change it up and go for an angry approach.

Against
1. Taylor Swift is a well known artist.
2. It may be difficult to steer away from the typical girl hates boy plot.
3. The concept may be seen as cheesy.

Idea 3 - Paper Planes - M.I.A.

For
1. The song is about democracy and real life political issues allowing us to have a positive message.
2. There are multiple efficient, editing opportunities due to the versatile beat.
3. The song is quite urban therefore it may be easy to shoot in different environments to make the video more diverse and real relating to democracy etc.

Against
1. The lyrics of the song may come across as offensive to some viewers.
2. The sounds of the gunshots may be too associated with violence.
3. The song may limit us as of what we could do.

Star Image Project

Star Image on Prezi

Artist Research

Artist Research on Prezi

Preliminary Task

Recently, me and my group did our preliminary task for our Music Videos. We chose to do the song Leave (Get Out) - Jojo as we felt that the opening of the music video had a variety of different shots that we thought could be beneficial for us to use.
I really enjoyed doing the task as it gave us a feel of the kinds of things we would be doing for Media Studies in A2. The lip synching was very difficult to master at times when editing as we had to match it with the song. Getting the different shots was pretty easy as they were quite straight forward to do.

Film Festival of British Film

Viewing List
1. Goldfinger
2. Bridget Jones' Diary
3. Anuvahoood
4. Tormented
5. Mammia Mia

Goldfinger
The 1964 film is the third film in the James Bond series. The film's plot has Bond investigating gold smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger and eventually uncovering Goldfinger's plans to attack the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. The certification for the film is a PG. The lead actors are Sean Connery, Honor Blackman and Gert Fröbe. The running time of the film is 110 minutes.

Bridget Jones' Diary
This 2001 British romantic comedy film based on Helen Fielding's novel is a film which all women can relate to and enjoy. It follows the frustrated Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) who is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary. The film also stars Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. The certificate of the film is a 15 and the running time is 97 minutes.


Anuvahood
The 2011 film Anuvahood is an urban comedy directed by Adam Deacon who is the main character in the film as well as Femi Oyeniran, Ollie Barbieri, Wil Johnson and Ashley Walters. The film follows the story of Kenneth (who likes to call himself Kay) trying to become a well respected gangster in his hometown where he comes across obstacles holding him back. This coming-of-age story is sure to get people laughing. The film's certificate is a 15 and the running time is 88 minutes.

Tormented
This 2009 horror film follows a group of classmates being taken revenge on by a bullied teenager who comes back from the dead to haunt them and make their lives hell. This spine-chilling film stars Alex Pettyfer, April Pearson, Dimitri Leonidas, Calvin Dean, Tuppence Middleton, Georgia King and Larissa Wilson. The film's certificate is a deserved 15 and runs for 87 minutes.

Mammia Mia
This 2008 musical consisting of hits from the popular 70's group Abba is based around a bride to be who is trying to find her real father. The film should get everyone singing along and tapping their feet away. The film stars Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep and Colin Firth. It's certificate is a PG and will run for 108 minutes.

Introductory Page for programme.
British film is so important. You as an audience get the change to view five fantastic films of all different genre's that really represent British film and Britian as a country itself in a great way. As British citizens, it is important to appreciate the art of film that we have in the country as it surely does not get enough recognition as it should. From directors like Phyllida Lloyd to Adam Deacon, you surely do not want to miss this! Sit back, snack on some popcorn and enjoy!

Favourite British Actor
Colin Firth
Colin Firth is a British film, television and theatre actor. He first landed a film career in 1984 starring in the film 'Another Country' however he started getting noticed properly as a successful British actor in the 1990's starring in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Mr Darcy. Since then, he has gone on to achieve far much more in films like Love Actually, St Trinian's, A Single Man, The Kings Speech and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Colin has won many awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor in The Kings Speech and a BAFTA for Best Actor in A Single Man etc. Colin Firth is still pursuing his movie career as he is set to star in upcoming films like Bridget Jones' Baby and Devil's Knot.

British Film

British Film for me is a film that is based on British attributes and what goes on. They are normally based in Britain and are sometimes very patriotic or are based on issues that happen in Britain. A lot of British films are normally based around the typical stereotype of gangsters or chavs which may consist of drugs, alcohol and violence. Relating back to the patriotic side, they can be based around the royal family or Britain in different periods of time. British films can also be romance films or teenage drama's etc. My favourite British film is Love Actually as it a romance film which covers all kinds of different people in relationships. I love the film as it is sweet and shows a great representation of Britain in the way the script is written portraying British humour and drama etc. When a British film is released at the cinema, I do generally take an interest about what it is about and if I want to watch it or not as I always like to see how directors and writers have chosen to represent Britain and the aspect of it is.

Music Video research

The first music video I chose is Pyro by Kings Of Leon. I really love this video because of how everything turns into slow motion from the first chorus. I also love how you don't see the band until right at the end playing in the pub. This gives the music video a sense of ambiguity. The slow motion effect of the people in the pub being raised into the air is really affective in my opinion as I think that it lightens the moos of the music video as it is quite violent due to the fighting.
My second video is When She Was Mine by Lawson. I enjoyed this video the first time I saw it because I love how it shows some of the stages of a relationship and how couples can drift from each other. I love how they are shown through flash backs. I also love the jump cuts from the scenes of the couple cutting to the band playing in a open studio type of place as this adds variation and a performance element to the music video.
My third video I have chosen is Who's Laughing Now by Jessie J. I love this video because of the comedy element to it. It is also a self esteem kind of music video which I think is very inspirational. Also, I love how it is mostly from the perspective of kids (Jessie J in her younger days) and then cuts back to her today and how she has grown. This gives a good contrast between young and old.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

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