Friday 12 December 2014

Practice Shots - Vocals



I decided to film some of the vocal parts of the music video as practice. I did it so that i could figure out some camera shots to use and so that Adam could get try out some different movements while singing as I don't want him to just stand still during it all. Hopefully he's going to be free next week so I can film the proper thing, I'm going to figure out some proper moves for him to do and think about the best camera angles for each part of the song. Obviously for the real thing I'll move the background objects such as the chair. I tried out using the black and white filter as I think it looks more like it's part of a music video this way.

Theatre

I think the best place to film the vocal parts of the video will be the theatre, I've talked to the teacher who uses it most and asked him when its free so that we can match it up with Adam's free time.

Friday 5 December 2014

Cast~

We have had a few casting issues as the singer we had chosen dropped out last minute but luckily we managed to convince our friend Adam to be the singer who is willing to film as soon as next week.
He has already started learning the song so he will be able to mime it well. We decided that he will dress in black, rock-style clothes and we now just need to figure out when he's free and where we can film.

Friday 21 November 2014

Finished Brief

This is the new updated brief for the narrative part of our music video:

We want it to make it over the top to match with the comical theme. The story will consist of two main characters, one will be a stereotypical 'nerd' and the other will be a bully. We will show clips of the conflict between both characters, some parts may be humorous. The 'nerd' is a huge fan of comics and takes inspiration from them, we are shown this by clips of him reading comics and having comic posters in his locker, etc. After getting more inspiration from his comics, he starts thinking of what it would be like if he was a superhero.

We are shown clips of him designing his superhero persona and designing the bully as a villain. The drawings he created will take up the frame and change from a  drawing to real life film- showing his imagination in action. We will switch between reality and his imagination (what we see in the drawings- the hero defeating the villain). We will use some sort of filter so you can tell that the imagination parts aren't actually happening and can tell the difference between them both.

Eventually the 'nerd' really likes the idea of being a superhero and standing up for himself so he tries dressing up and making his imagination a reality. However, (we will make sure he dresses deliberately bad/ridiculous)  it does not compare to his fantasy and the reality of it, he looks very strange. For comical purposes, we will have many clips of him looking stupid, (for example, having his cape blowing in the wind- its getting blown by a visible fan and the cape blows over his face)
Others around him keep giving him confused expressions and laughing at him but he ignores it.
Eventually he goes over and stands up to the bully but the bully eventually walks away because of how stupid the whole situation is, making the 'nerd' think its a victory and he has stood up for himself.

Throughout this, there will also be clips of the performance part of the music video with the singer singing parts of the song, which is a common element in music videos. He will not be part of the storyline, he will be filmed in a separate location.


Afterwards we will create a storyboard to show all of this narrative in more detail.

Casting

Another difficult part of the planning is finding people to actually play the roles. We've asked quite a few people already and still no positive response. We are going to properly write up our brief soon so that we can actually see how many people we will need and the exact roles of them as we have an overall idea but we want it to be as accurate as possible. Apart from the actual narrative characters, we'll need a male singer for the singing parts, we are going to ask a few people that do performance/music in school to see if anyone would be interested. Over the weekend, we have a huge list of people to ask if they'll be in our video, we'll give them a description of our music video to see if they are interested. We want to start filming straight away after the weekend so hopefully this goes well. Once we find people we will take pictures of them and put them in a post alongside a description of the role they'll be playing in the video. We may also need pictures of them for our ancillary task later on where we will be making a digipak and a  music video/cd poster.

Thursday 20 November 2014

Chosen Song!

Eventually we found a song we could use, we feel like creating the music video will be much easier now as we can get extra ideas from the song and can actually feel motivated to start filming.
We could've started filming without the song but it would've been rather tough because we wouldn't know whether we would be changing parts of the storyline to fit the chosen song or not. We will be changing a few minor things just to keep it to the comical aspect and to fit this song better, I will talk about the changes in a separate post.
I like the lyrics of this song as although they don't exactly fit, if you look at them differently, most of the lines could fit as its about changing someone. The song is very catchy and I can imagine lots of fun shots from it.


Costume

Whether we change the storyline or not, we will be keeping the superhero aspect of it at least. We have ordered capes and masks etc. and since it's going to be comical we're not sure if the rest of the superhero outfit will be deliberately bad/funny or not. I will draw an overall comic styled costume design later, as its what the character in the video will be drawing when he/she's imagining themselves as a superhero.

Possible location shots









Wednesday 19 November 2014

Choosing a song

We have been trying to find a new song as quick as we can and although it seems like such an easy task, it's actually really hard to find a song to fit an already created storyline. It would've been easier to choose a song first and then create a storyline from it but we like the general idea of our storyline so are going to try and find a catchy upbeat song that can match it.
A few we have been looking at are:


We like them because they are catchy and fit the atmosphere but we don't think they are completely right so we have to keep looking.

Friday 7 November 2014

First Brief

Me and Emily have come up with brief idea for the narrative part of our music video:

We wanted an interesting story line to the video so that it'll be fun to film so we came up with 'Superheroes and Villains'.

It will feature 4 different people, 3 that are dressed up as superheroes and 1 as a villain. We will show scenes of them not dressed up, doing ordinary things but then they will pick up their superhero attire to show that they have another identity. It will switch between their two different identities to show the difference in them both. The 3 superheroes will go against the villain in various fast paced clips. Also, there will be extreme close up clips of the singers mouth but the rest of her face will be kept a secret till the end where the shot turns into a regular close up showing the whole face, revealing that the singer is the villain.

Although we do not have a complete specific idea about scenes and editing yet, we think that adding some slow motion and black and white parts to the parts we film,specifically the fight, will make it look more dramatic which is what we want it to look. That kind of editing fits with the song too as the song we want to use sounds very slow and dramatic.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Digipak analysis















The front cover shows 2 models covered in blood with a dark background. The album name is called 'Life on the murder scene' so the album matches the name. The band name is huge on the top so people know who the artist is. This is a special edition cd so a box is included on the front showing all the extra tracks and footage that are included on the discs.
A DVD logo has been added at the bottom left to show it also plays videos, not just soundtracks.
A parental advisory logo has also been added.

It opens up twice to show two discs, the models are covered in blood again to the keep to the theme of the album.

The back of the cd case shows all of the soundtracks and footage that are on the discs so people can figure out what song is on at what time.
Barcode at the bottom left.
There is text at the bottom showing all the production names and such.

Instead of a dark background for the inside parts, a white background has been used to contrast well with the red blood.








From Yesterday- 30stm




A video like this has a very strong narrative that even goes on without the song playing to show a specific story. These are usually very expensive videos to make that  are made for featured/popular soundtracks.

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Song Lyrics

"I'd Love To Change The World"

Everywhere is freaks and hairies 
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor 
'Til there are no rich no more 

I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you

Population keeps on breeding
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy
Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees make honey, who needs money, No none for me

I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you

Oh yeah!

World pollution, there's no solution
Institution, electrocution
Just black and white, rich or poor
Senators stop the war

I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you

Chosen song



We decided that we like this song the best especially because of the part at 1:59 as it gives us lots of ideas on the types of shots we could have. We have came up with a brief storyline for the video which I will post later.
This song makes me think that the narrative would be very dramatic.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Possible song choices

I have found these two songs that I quite like the sound of. They both sound similar with both the actual music and the lyrics and both give me ideas and inspiration for what to put in a music video for them.
Me and Emily have decided we definitely want a music video with a narrative to it, but we are not sure what yet.




Questionnaire Results



I'm going to take these results into consideration when filming the music video as I want the target audience to be pleased with it.

Questionnaire


We decided to create questionnaires so that we could get a general idea on peoples preferences. I gave mine out to 16 people.


Music Video Questionnaire


 
What is your gender?

Male (_)
Female (_)
Other (_)
What is your age?

Under 16 (_)
17 – 21 (_)
22- 30 (_)
30+ (_)

Do you enjoy watching music videos?

Yes (_)
No (_)
Where do you view these music videos?
Tv (_)
Internet (_)
Other (please state) __________________      
I do not watch music videos (_)
If a music video has a story to it do you find it more interesting to watch?

Yes (_)
No (_)
Not sure (_)
Do you prefer it when the artist features in the video?
Yes (_)
No (_)
Not sure (_)
Do you prefer music videos that include special effects/animations etc?

Yes (_)
No (_)
depends on the song/video (_)
 




   

Katy Perry- Thinking Of You -music video analysis.


Thinking of You - Katy Perry




Lana Del Rey- Young and Beautiful- music video analysis


Young and Beautiful- Lana Del Rey



Preliminary Chase Sequence



A group of us decided to film a comical chase sequence, we each took turns doing different things so that we could get practice with each role. However, after editing we found some minor mistakes such as a smudge on the lens and the reflection of us through the glass of the door. We will avoid repeating these mistakes when we start to do our  own real filming.

Since there wasn't an actual storyline to this, we decided to add a song and add tiny extra clips to make it a bit comical to watch.

Andrew Goodwin- Music Video Theory


Tuesday 30 September 2014

Genre Theory

Genre tends to be based on generic conventions of content; it ends up being repository of images, sounds, stories, characters and expectations.  According to Steve Neale (1990)- the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process of "difference in repetition". This means that the audience have expectations for each genre and although it ends up making the conventions somewhat repetitive, industries still to at least lightly use them throughout different aspects to please the intended audience. He also adds that "difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre" indicating that if everything was exactly the same, the audience would eventually get bored, there is no pleasure without difference.

Tom Ryall (1998) describes genre theory as "patterns/styles/structures which transcend individual films and which supervise both their construction by the film-maker and their reading by an audience."
 John Fiske defines it as "attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences."

Music Videos can have genres due to the narratives that are played throughout it, for example, a sad song more have a tragic narrative to it.

Thursday 3 July 2014

Starting A2

For this years A2 media studies I have chosen to create a music video but due to the vast amount of work needed for this project we have been advised to work with 1-3 other people. So because of that I have decided to be in a group with Emily Scott - http://emilyscott-mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/.

We will work equally together on both the practical work and research so that it's fair, this includes sharing our thoughts and ideas to each other and both adding our own creativity throughout the whole production so that it ends up being a project created by both of us.

Our first task is to research different music videos and get an idea of what the conventions are throughout them.

Thursday 8 May 2014

Final Front Cover


Final Contents




Final Article Introduction


Final Article


Evaluation Q7 Answer:


I answered the last evaluation question using SlideShare

Evaluation Question 7 (final)

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Q6 Answer:

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about new technologies from the process of creating this product?

Evaluation Q5 answer

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Monday 28 April 2014

Results

Audience Feedback (Danielle Oliver) by thegardenofedenhall on GoAnimate

I presented the results of the questionnaire on GoAnimate.

Overall Questionnaire



I have decided to hand out a questionnaire to a few different people within my target audience, it asks questions about their opinion on my finished magazine so I can see whether I have been successful or not.
Questions
Do you like the magazine?

( ) yes ( ) no

If yes, what parts do you like the best?

_______________________________________________________________________

What parts do you like least?

_______________________________________________________________________

Do you feel that the Rock genre was portrayed well in the magazine?

() yes () no

Do you think the colour scheme works well?

() yes () no

Is everything clear enough to read?

() yes () no

Would you buy this magazine if it was on sale?

() yes  () no

Do you think it is appropriate to the target audience age? (16-20 year olds)

() yes () no

Would you recommend this magazine to other people?

() yes () no


Any other comments about the magazine?

________________________________________________________________________


Readers Profile

Reposting my readers profile as a reminder since it is relevant to my evaluation.

Evaluation Q4 Answer:


Evaluation Question 4

What would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Q3 answer

I made this using 'https://bubbl.us' to basically write a few facts about each company. Looking at that and my past research on both publishing companies, I figured that overall - Bauer would be more suitable for distributing my magazine. I think because of the success they have had of publishing for the same target audience as mine, pretty much proves straight away that they will be more suitable for my magazine. Although there is the concern with the competition my magazine will have with Kerrang!, there would still be competition with either publisher really. We'd just have to make sure that not all of our content is exactly the same and try out extra things to lure buyers in such as free gifts and competitions - alongside being more active with the audience themselves.

Evaluation Question 3



What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


I have done bits of research in the past about magazine distribution so i will continue from that.

Evaluation Q2 answer:

http://prezi.com/4eb7frz7nqck/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Evaluation Question 2

How does the media product represent social groups?

Evaluation Q1 Answer: Contents Page

 Conventions (also style model from when i was creating my own contents page.)

  • Text which tells whats on the pages is all justified to one side.
  • storyline's in bold to catch the readers attention - with extra information added underneath in normal font.
  • pages numbers help navigate readers around the magazine.
  • story's are separated into categories to keep the contents page looking more organized 
  • an advertisement at the bottom for a subscription to the magazine
  • editors notes
  • large image representing a competition, image to show its importance.
  • Magazine logo is large at the top, keeping with a house style.


Evaluation Q1 Answer: Article


  • Rhetorical question; 'want to know what all time low get up to behind closed doors?'  - readers can find out by reading the article.
  • Large quotation over the main image to give the readers an extra insight to the interview and to tease them into reading it
  • Interview questions highlighted in yellow, keeping with the colour scheme. Also, so that the questions are easily noticed.
  • Another main quote is in-between all the text, larger than the rest so that it stands out. Images scattered around the page with little captions




Evaluation Q1 Answer: Front Cover

Conventions of a rock music magazine (This particular image was my main style model when creating my own magazine.)



  • Large masthead which is behind the main image of the band to make them stand out. This is possible since the magazine is popular enough for people to still recognise the name.
  • The image shows all the members looking right at the readers to make them feel more welcomed to the magazine itself.
  • Marjorie Ferguson's identification on the four types of facial expressions for women on magazines still applies even here. : Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. 
  • Very bold colours and text to go with the craziness and originality of the rock music culture.
  • Largest text apart from the title is the name of the band since the main storyline is on them.
  • Banner advertising relevant freebies to further persuade people to buy the mag.
  • Hard to see but a website is included as well in order to advertise the magazine online which will create a wider ranged audience. Social Media logos are used most of the time for this purpose too but there doesn't seem to be any on this particular front cover.
  • Other generic conventions here include barcode, issue date, price, images to show sneak peaks of other things inside, etc.

My magazine - similarities.


  • I followed the same sort of layout with the panels etc.
  • Just like the Kerrang! one I tried to make mine look as busy as possible without it looking too complicated.
  • Large masthead behind image of band.
  • Things such as freebies to gain more buyers.
  • Social Media
  • Use of lots of text and images
  • etc.








Thursday 17 April 2014

Evaluation Question 1



Since I have finished creating my practical work, I am going to move onto the evaluation where I will answer various questions about my magazine. The first question is:-



In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Thursday 20 February 2014

Alterations


I noticed how I had accidentally set the article introduction page to the wrong size, so made a few alterations with the sizing to make it the correct double page spread size. I also did a few things like adding a shadow to the 'Exclusive Interview With...' to make it easier to read.

Article (Screenshot 5)

Further adding on to make it look more interesting to look at

Article (Screenshot 4)

Posting process from a while later. I managed to place the article in nicely with the columns and margins options, and have started to add extras such as the title at the top saying 'the time is now'

I made the questions from the interviewer in blue so that they stand out against the rest of the black text.
I wrapped the text around the quote in the middle to make it stand out, this is a usual convention in any sort of article really.

Article (Screenshot 3)

Did the same steps and added a few extra images of the band, they're not 'professional' images - to go with the idea they are fun people and are good friends with each other and are happy, rather than people thinking they're serious all the time

Article (Screenshot 2)


 I used the rectangle frame tool to place the picture on the left-hand side page


Article (Screenshot 1)

I created the base of the article, there is lots of new tools and such but hopefully if i play around for a bit I should get the hang of it.

indesign

Next I will be starting my article, but I have decided to create it on the program called 'indesign' rather than photoshop because it is more accurate and precise for creating things like articles. It will be my first time using it but I will try my best as the results will hopefully end up looking okay.

Article Intro (screenshot 2) final.


Article Intro (screenshot 1)

I felt like adding one of these because they are great for introducing who the article is about-  making the article look more important.

Contents Page (Screenshot 5) Final

I eventually added the pic of the celebrity the fans have a chance to meet, and the actual title of the magazine, keeping with the house-style.

Contents Page (Screenshot 4)

I've put a competition up very big so readers can notice it more, it is an important one since it is winning free tickets for a meet and greet with a celebrity which is again relevant to the music magazine genre. All fans have to do is answer the question correctly to be in for a chance of winning, since it is so easy to do and free, lots of readers will feel no harm in trying out.

I added the 'o2 academy' advertisement at the top since this is a music magazine and they host a lot of gigs that the artists mentioned within the magazine will perform at.

Contents Page (3rd Screenshot)

I decided to add an 'editors notes' section because Kerrang uses them all the time and Kerrang is my main magazine style-model when creating my own. I think they are there for some audience feedback, some information directly aimed at the readers from someone that works for the magazine (They usually talk about emails, letters or the magazine itself or even plans for the future.)

I also added a section advertising how you can subscribe to the magazine, subscription is cheaper than buying magazines separately so readers may be interested in it.

Contents Page (2nd Screenshot)

I decided to make the background red so that I can keep with the house-style of my front cover. I added a few small images to go with a  few of the numbers so readers can again get a further insight

Contents Page (1st Screenshot)

I've started making my contents page, I first added everything that will be on the pages - accompanied by numbers and separated into sub-headings so that readers can easily navigate throughout the magazine.

Front Cover (6th Screenshot) Final~

This is the final outcome of the front cover of my magazine. The use of all the extra pictures gives the reader a further insight to the magazine, alongside all the names of artists.  I have added a facebook and twitter logo as a link to social media since the target audience are 16-20 year olds and they're in the
main percentage of users of these sites. The magazines own website has been added too in case the target audience want to keep up-to-date via the internet since it will be so easy for them with their laptops, phones, etc. I love the use of the primary colours as the main 3 colours of the magazine, they stand out well against each other and are very bold for the readers to see and be interested in.

Survey Results!

I gave the survey to 10 people within my target audience and these are the results~


() Psychedelic       - 2
() Midnight Rose    - 2
() DiaboliK Lovers - 5
() Mythica    - 1

So the name of the band will be DiaboliK Lovers
'although I didn't ask many people, it was enough to help me decide on a name.

Mini Survey.

I struggled on names for the main band of my magazine so I created a mini survey which I will give to people so they can reply with what they prefer. It includes a few different names and I will make sure the people I give the survey to are within my target audience so that it is fair.


The Survey looks like this:-

Which name sounds best for an all-girl rock band?
() Psychedelic 
() Midnight Rose
() DiaboliK Lovers
() Mythica

Thursday 6 February 2014

Front Cover (5th Screenshot)

I've started to add more detail to the magazine by adding things like the other bands that are appearing within the magazine;there is lots - giving the readers a wide range of choices.
Free CD at the top was added to make more people want to buy it, the artists who are featured in it are ones that are relevant to the same genre of music as the magazine. Therefore, it will most likely be artists that the target audience may enjoy- making them want the free gift- further making them want to buy the magazine.

Front Cover (4th Screenshot) CHANGE.


- After thinking a bit more about it and drawing out a new preferred flat plan, I have decided to change the colouring to my magazine. I want my magazine to be bright and busy so that the young readers don't get bored easily, the colours need to be able to attract people and make them look more in depth at it all. I figured the new font for the title is more fun too.

Front Cover (3rd Screenshot)


I have added a few extra things the white shapes are where I am going to put little images of the 'posters.' I have wrote 'quote' and 'text' in the middle since they're going to be to do with the article within the magazine, however, I have not yet finished it so I will figure out which specific quote and piece of text I will place there.

The space between that and the 'Exclusive' is where the band name will be but again, I have yet to think of one.