Ideas for filming

This is Mike Mago & Dragonette - Outlines . This used an interesting effect in it of duplicating the artist when dancing. We liked this effect a lot and we looked into how to do it. We are going to attempt to use this in our music video but instead of dancing we will just duplicate the artist walking.

This video explains how to create the duplicating effect. This is a step by step video therefore it will be very easy to follow and help us out a lot when it comes to filming and editing.

Risk Assessment

What is the risk?	What can you do to prevent it?	How did it go after filming?
When we are filming in London there could be a risk of getting hit by a car. This is because the roads and pavements are very busy.	We must ensure that we look when crossing the roads and use traffic lights. We must pay attention at all times.
When we are on our way to London to film, we could fall down the stairs at the train station.	We must not rush and take care when walking down the stairs.
The cables from the light could be dangerous as someone could trip over them.	We must make sure we have hidden away the cables as best as we can and ensure that we pay attention and look where we step.
When we are filming on the streets of London, we could bump into someone or trip over.	We must make sure we are looking where we are going at all times.
When the two actors are play fighting, they could accidentally hurt one another.	They must make sure they are careful and know what each other are doing by rehearsing the scene.
When waiting at the train station, people in a rush could push us of the platform.	We must make sure we do not stand too close to the platform edge.

Possible Locations For Our Music Video

London Bridge

Here is our first possible location for our music video. This is London Bridge. We have planned our route to this location by train as it will be much quicker and most probably cheaper. We want to film walking down London Bridge when it is dark as we think it will look much more effective when the spotlights are on. It will be dark around half 4 so we won't have to stay outside too late. 

 Piccadilly Circus

Here is our second idea for filming. This is Piccadilly Circus. We will film here in the daytime and nighttime as we haven't decided which will look better therefore if we film both we have choice. We know that this area is always very busy. This could make or break the shot so this is a risk we will have to take. We could film time lapse here as it is so busy it would work well.

Camden High Street

This is our third possible filming location. This is Camden High Street. There are lots of different locations within Camden where we could film. These are a few of the places; Camden Twin Locks and Camden Market food area. We liked the idea of sitting on the motorbike seats and shooting there. We also liked the idea of filming on the bridge.

London Eye Street

This is our fourth location for filming. This is the pathway leading up to the London Eye. This picture has been taken at christmas time which fortunately is now. We thought that the lights made the scenery look very pretty and would work well in our video. We may have difficulty with this as it will be extremely busy and may not look right. 

Marketing Techniques Used In The Music Industry

There is a theory that suggests 'The more original your marketing idea is the more likely you are to be noticed and stand out'.

There are many different marketing techniques that have been used in the past and been successful. For example:
A well known marketing technique is to give away free music. Arctic Monkeys used this technique and fortunately they were very triumphant in doing this. They gave away free demos at all of their gigs. This allowed the fans to upload the demo online and share with others. This helped them achieve worldwide fame and caused them to sell out their first album exceptionally fast. People love free things therefore I feel this is a good strategy but also very risky. If the audience doesn't enjoy the music for various reasons such as it being given to the wrong audience or genuinely just a poor quality of music then you could end up losing money rather than gaining it.

Another successful marketing technique would be to give out an album for free in the newspaper. Prince used this strategy by releasing his album for free with every copy of the Mail On Sunday. This is a massive risk. He had already achieved fame and people instantly knew that the album would be worthwhile. Research shows that the vast amount of people buy the Mail On Sunday therefore Prince's album was being played in the majority of the households in the UK. Prince made money from this as he appealed to a wide range of audiences which meant they bought tickets to see him live.

Assessment Improvements

1. What have you done to address points from recent assessments?

After reading feedback on my post 'What Music Means To Me' I reflected back and added in a paragraph about how this might influence my choice of music video. I added my reflection on my post 'Changing Speed' and how it could be effective in my own music video.

2. What are your current targets to improve?

I need to get up to date with all work I have missed, especially my Production Diary.

3. What do you want us to assess next?

All new and updated work.

Research For The Artist's New Outfit and Location

           

Here is the final chosen outfit for our performance artist. The orange dress is very formal and classy therefore it will give the audience the impression that we want which is confidence and purity. The heels complete the outfit, giving it the sophisticated look and also shows the artist makes an effort with what they look like, in comparison to the narrative artist.

Here is the new background that we have decided to use. This is in my bedroom therefore it will very easy to access at all times. We liked this idea much better as it is a bit more exciting than just a plain white background. We also thought, with the orange dress, the artist will stand out much more. We will film here in the daytime to ensure that we do not get any shadows of the light on the wall. 

Our First Practice Shot

Here is our first practice shot of our performance based artist. By filming this practice shot, it helped us a pair conclude our decisions for the video. We decided the lighting wasn't great and the plain white wall didn't compliment the shot either. Due to this, we have decided to change the wall in which we use as our background. Instead, we will use a black and white zebra print wall. Also we felt that the artist should not wear a white/grey outfit against the white wall as it blends in too much. The artist doesn't stand out and look confident like we wanted her to. Therefore we will change the artists outfit and make her wear a bright orange dress. This will contrast with the background very well and get the look we wanted. As this was a practice, the artist can now look back and observe what improvements need to be made. More passion and facial expressions need to be used to make the lip syncing more believable. I felt that we timed the time lip syncing very well.

Research On Websites

Audiences Opinions Of Our Name Choice

Analysis of Costumes

Here are some ideas of what we would like our artists to wear. The Performance artist will wear something very different to the Narrative artist to clearly show the contrast. We will achieve this by dressing the Performance artist in light colours and the Narrative artist in dark colours. This illuminates the purity and confidence in the Performance artist and the sadness and depression of the Narrative Artist.

Research Into Possible Song Choices

Before finally choosing our decided song Banks - Change we looked at another artist called The XX. We discovered a song called Angels and found it interesting but although we liked it, we found a lot of cons towards the song. Firstly the pace of the song is very slow and doesn't seem to speed up much at all throughout the entire song. We found this slightly boring and felt others would aswell therefore this made us slightly weary. As we listened to the song over and over again, we didn't feel the same way as we did with Bank's song. We couldn't establish the lyrics properly and found them hard to understand as the artist sings very quiet and mumbles. This concluded our decision and made it final that we would not use The XX - Angels for our chosen song.

Audiences Reaction about Our Star

Our Chosen Performance Artist

 

We came to a decision that I ( Katie ) would play the part of the performance based artist. This is because I have blonde hair which is one of the things that the audience voted for. I have a positive personality and I can relate to most of the chosen personality traits. I am comfortable in front of the camera and it made sense to use me as Poppy will always know when I am free meaning we will not have to change our timetable too much.

Online Survey for our Artist

We created an online survey for various audiences to answer our questions so that we could find out whether the appearance and personality of our artist really did matter. We asked basic questions to find out the vital information that we need. Here are our results:

We found that the appearance and personality of our artist does matter. The majority of the people who answered our questions went for these answers:

- Yes hair colour does matter

- Blonde

- Yes personality does matter

- An all round personality - all positive

- Tall Girls

After reading these results, we started to make a list of people who would fit this description. We eliminated each person one by one until we came to a conclusion.

Our Star Image

Same Genre To My Chosen Song

Here is a little collection of songs that I put together. They are examples of the same genre as our song 'Change' by Banks. The genre of these are Alternative Pop. They are all very popular songs and very catchy.

Hairstyle Tutorial Planning

This hairstyle would be good for me as we want the performance based artist to look very prestige and glamorous. We feel that the actress should look confident and 'done-up'. Poppy knows how to do this hairstyle therefore she can do it. This is easier as we will be together and will not have to find someone else who can fit in with our free time.



This hairstyle would be good for Poppy as she needs to look very natural and slightly messy. This is a simple hairstyle and either one of us can do it. This gives the impression that she doesn't really care about what she looks like.

Make-Up Tutorial Planning

We want to use natural makeup for Poppy who will be the narrative based actress. This is because she is in an unstable relationship and does not make the effort as much as anyone else would.

 

In contrast, my makeup will be very glamorous and bright so that it shows I am happy and confident. This is a very detailed tutorial but fortunately it walks you through step by step therefore it was very easy to follow.

Examples of Time Lapse

Foster The People - Coming of Age shows Time Lapse throughout the whole video. They have sped up the process of redesigning  the building. This is effective because it shows you a lot of footage in a much smaller amount of time.



From Bump to Buzz - Tom Fletcher shows him recording a song about the coming birth of his and his wifes baby. The video shows the process of his wife's belly growing in time. I like this video a lot as I feel that it very romantic and thoughtful. It is a good effect to show how times goes on.



The Scientist - Coldplay shows the main artist involved in the time lapse effect. This is used differently in the video as it isn't as fast paced as it usually is. The main artist is being played backwards of what he has just done. This is a nice way of showing what has happened but not in the stereotypical way of being in order.

Rihanna Digipak Remake

Here is our own re-make of Rihanna's digipak 'Talk That Talk'. We found this a challenging task but we enjoyed it. Although all the poses of Rihanna were pretty easy to do, we found the backgrounds hard to find/make. Also the costumes were hard to match up as I myself did not own clothes like this. We didn't want to use real smoke therefore we edited it in after on Fireworks. This was quite tricky as we needed to make it seem as real as possible. Also we struggled to find somewhere with small steps around the school so we decided to also edit this in. I think that we done a good job of editing in the steps as it looks realistic and almost as if I am really sitting there.

Reply From Our Artist

We were very happy that 'Sterio' replied as this gave us permission to continue on with his song. He was very supportive and we plan on sending him the finished video when we are completed.

Artists In The News

Email To Our Artist

Here is the email that we sent the artist of our chosen song. We wanted to be as polite as possible to ensure that we had the best possible chances of getting permission. We explained that it was for our coursework so that he would understand that it was for educational purposes only.

Conventions Of A Rock Music Video

Conventions Of A Pop Music Video

Audience Questionnaire

Our Song Choice

This was our original song choice. We thought that this was good as it had catchy lyrics and unique beat. We had lots of ideas for the performance, narrative and concept. After re-assessing this song, we realised that it doesn't change pace as much as we would like it too. Therefore, to solve this situation, we looked for this same song but with a remix to it.



After searching and listening to many remix's , we finally found one we liked. We noticed that due to the tone and pace of Bank's voice, a lot of the remix's didn't 'suit' the song. This remix will now be our final song choice.

Changing Speed

I decided that I needed to refresh my memory of how to use Premiere Pro so I played around with the effects. I used this video of a baby swimming and added a reverse effect. This could be used in my own music video which is similar to time lapse. This is very easy to add to the video and will definitely be used in my video.

Teacher assessment - audience questionnaire

A Level Media Progress Check - Katie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Audience Questionnaire
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Good use of web 2.0 tool. Good  questions.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		Could you explore a wider range of questions that look at what people might want from a video in terms of concept, performance, narrative, costumes, setting etc.
Additional comments

Meaning to BANKS' Lyrics

Click on the highlighted lines to read the analysis.



Read “Change” by Banks on Genius

Analysis Of Lyrics

Film Pitch

Teacher assessment - general

A Level Media Progress Check - Katie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		General
Relevant assessment criteria		Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Good start to your blog. You have some of the key work on there.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		Ensure you have checked the list (In the pink folder in 212) to double-check what work is missing from your blog. Ensure you create your production diary and use a wider range of web 2.0 tools to make your blog more interactive.
Additional comments		Ensure you set up labels on your blog.

Teacher assessment - practice editing

A Level Media Progress Check - Katie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Practice editing
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		You have edited the speed and used reverse on the footage.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you reflected on what this practice has taught you and how it might be used in your own video editing.
Additional comments

Teacher Assessment - Music Video Pitch

A Level Media Progress Check - Katie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Music video/song pitch
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Some basic information linking into your song choice and what you might do with the song. Well done for another web 2.0 tool.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you could attach the song you want to use and begin to use more images to exemplify what choices you want to make and why.
Additional comments

Media Assessment

Research and Planning
When looking back at my Year 12 AS Media coursework I can clearly see now that there is room for improvement. Our task as a group was to create a film opening. We had the freedom to do whatever we pleased. After a few lessons of drafting ideas we finally made the decision of using the genre horror for our opening. All three members of our group wrote a name of the film down that we thought would look good. We sat down and discussed which we liked better, we all came to the conclusion that we loved “She Told Me To”. This is because we thought that it sounded like a horror film as it gave you the creeps but also says exactly what the film was about – a possessed doll which controls the vulnerable woman. This method was probably not the best as we only took on board three girl’s opinions rather than boys and other ages. We believed that the best and most probably the easiest target audience were teenagers. This is because we ourselves are teenagers therefore we could relate to the target audience and our likes and dislikes were similar the rest of the audiences. Unfortunately again this was all the planning that we did for our choice of target audience – our opinions. When planning my target audience this year in A2 for creating a music video, I will make up a questionnaire and ask my peers and family what they feel would be best the target audience and name of artist. This is so that I get different opinions from a range of ages.  The next part that we planned was the storyboard. This was so that we could get an idea for the shots and the timings. When we made the storyboard, we felt at the time that it wouldn't really help us therefore we didn't really make much of an effort. We estimated the time slots and the camera angles. When we came to filming we really relied on the storyboard but unfortunately we couldn't as it was not detailed enough. This is definitely something that I will work on in this next coursework as I feel that it is extremely vital to the task. I will ensure that the storyboard is very detailed and will tell us exactly what needs to be in each shot and how this will be done. The next part of our research which we completed was general research for our video. This consisted of who would be best to play our characters, what would they wear, what were their names, make up, costumes etc. We started our research of who would be the best actors in our video. The way we decided to do this was by looking at our friends, we thought this would be the easiest way as we know exactly how our friends act and mostly when they are free to film. We looked at 3 different girls in our friendship group, 2 being from our media class. This immediately had a positive effect as we thought that it would probably be easier to pick someone who also does media as they would understand the technical terms and would be free the same time as us. After carefully looking we finally chose Poppy for many reasons. We eliminated the boys in the same way but unfortunately neither of them was in media. We finally chose Dave. We then started research for the font of our title. We typed into a scary font generator the name of our title. It produced lots of different fonts; we chose our favourite ones and asked our class members which was their favourite also. Something which we could improve on next time would be to ask more people to get an average answer. Next we researched previous production logos from other horror films. This helped us to understand the common connection between them all. As a group we started to draft ideas of our logo. Again we only went with our own opinions not everyone else’s; this is definitely our main priority to concentrate on this task. I felt as a group we managed our research and planning time well as we started this all straight away and finished this quite quickly. I will make sure that I continue to manage my time well in this year’s task to hopefully gain a better grade.

Following the conventions of real media texts

As a group we ensured that our film opening followed the conventions of a horror film. We briefly knew what the conventions of a horror film were but not everything therefore we needed to research into them more. We watched the start of a few horror films like ours for example The Possession and Sinister and we found that all the films started in the same way. The opening shot was an establishing shot which showed the setting therefore this is what we will do in our opening film. The films all generally started with a song in the background which was quite creepy so as before we used this again to ensure we kept all the conventions of horror film. We found a creepy song about a doll on YouTube which we used as our backing song which worked well as it was relevant to our film. The music was slow paced and gradually got faster which was the same as ours. Every film opening - not just horror films, have their production logos at the beginning of the film. To keep the conventions the same we had to do this as well. We related the logo to horror so that people knew what genre of film they were watching. There isn’t lots of conventions of a horror film opening therefore we had to make sure that we followed the ones that there are so people would be intrigued. In my A2 course work I will ensure that I will follow all conventions and hopefully follow them better this time so that I will attract more audiences.

Creativity and Originality

When I look back on how our group did to produce a film opening, I feel that we took on board all of the conventions but still made it personal to ourselves. This was so that our video would be unique and different than other peoples. We decided to use footage of a family member who was a child therefore it was original to us and this was personal footage. In between these shots we flashed up images of a doll, this took our own spin on the film. We used various shots from establishing shots to handheld shots. This mixed the shots up a bit so that they didn’t get so repetitive. For our A2 coursework I hope to keep the creativity and originality as I feel this is the most important part. This will intrigue the audience and keep them entertained throughout.

Peer Assessment On Star Image

WWW: You have good knowledge of the artist though out her different songs and music videos  

EBI: Maybe you could compare the artist from her first album to her second album to show the progression of her as an artist.

Peer Assessment On Andrew Goodwin's Theory

WWW: You had really good examples for the Andrew Goodwin's theory and developed on the explanation to why they promoted certain products.

EBI: You could have some examples of art music videos to develop the opposing theory side. 

History Of Music

I focused on the The Noughties group for his particular task. I found this group very interesting and memorable as this was decade that I grew up in. It made me realise how fast technology is developing and causing music videos to change and become better. By looking at my work and everyone else's, it helped me a lot as I found out things I never knew.

Teacher Assessment - Analyse A Video

A Level Media Progress Check - Katie
	Assessed by		NSE - Teacher
Focus of assessment		Analyse a music video
Relevant assessment criteria		There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
Evidence of progress/ evidence of meeting criteria		Detailed reflection on the music video. You show good knowledge and have applied media language and theory.
Areas to work on next/ ideas to consider		If you could use screen shots to exemplify some of the points made in your analysis.
Additional comments		Try using one of the web 2.0 tools to make your work more interactive.