Green Screening!

Hello!

Right, last week Alex and I were getting used to editing with green screen. We've used our Science room-raid photos to practice on. After many experiments and little tests, we've found a effective way of removing the green screen. Steps to follow for those who would like to also know how to remove the hulk behind you:

1) Load photo to Photoshop
2) Locate the magic wand tool
3) Use the magnetic version of the tool - which can be found by holding left click on the magic wand tool
4) Magnify the image so that the edges of the objects/person can be seen along with the edge of the green
5) Begin to draw around the object/person using the magnetic wand tool
6) Delete, delete and delete!

If my simple, easy-to-follow guide was not simple enough. Please use the tutorial-for-dummies:

This is one of the pictures we've been working on - it'll be one of our website photos or potentially apart of the album.

Narrative Code Analysis

I'm back,
So as another repeat from my previous blog, I'll analyse narrative codes that Roland Barthes uses.
Action Code
The audience will recognise and action code in a media text as it is used to indicate what is the next logical step. It advances the narrative e.g the buckling of a bug belt in a Western film signifies the start of a gun fight.

Our own uses:
- The buttoning up of a shirt or tying a tie signifies the start of work.
Mystery Coe or Enigma Code
This code if used to explain the narrative by controlling what and how much information is given to the audience. It grabs the audience's interest and attention by setting up an enigma or problem that is resolved during the course of the narrative. e.g someone's murderous hand in the opening sequence.

Our own uses:
- All of our characters will enter a building, hinting towards them all partaking in an activity together, but the audience won't know what yet.
The Semic Code
Basically, this code is all about signs and meanings in a text that tell us about its narrative and characters e.g in a horror film,. the supernatural would be signified by the fear of light.

Our own uses:
- A chef hat will signify a character's profession, as a chef. Duh.
The Cultural Code
This code is used in order for the narrative to make sense to a culturally and socially aware audience. It makes reference to elements from the to elements from the real world that the audience will recognise. e.g Aston Martins & Martinis in James Bond films.

Our own uses:
- Not too sure, but this can be expanded upon.

Cover Art Update

Hi,


Once again, Alex has taken the initiative and taken our album cover ideas a step further by creating our album covers physically! The original concept was that the cover would link with our theme of being somewhat geeky but stylistic and original so that our audience isn't limited and can reach out to those of all ages. With that in mind, Alex brought our ideas to life by creating a rocket and titles for the album, take a look:

Alex also created a short explanation as to the features of our logo/covert art including inspiration, style links, genre and theme links as well as aesthetic choices. Bare in mind that these are no final designs and we still have ground to cover in order to complete our album cover designs and finish our website designs.  

To give you a little pre-view of what we've been editing:

Audience Theory: Uses and Gratifications

Hello again,

So, this post is very similar to a post I created last year, however the obvious differences will include our areas of focus as this year we are creating a music video, not a thriller opening.

One very useful audience theory, the Uses & Gratification theory gives us an insight into audience needs which is essential if we want to make an effective music video with meaning. It will allow us to utilise certain aspects of audience needs so we can play on them and use those needs as a sort of mould in which we can place our ideas into. I'll present the theory, highlight & then pick out areas which Alex and I think will be key to accessing higher marks and creating a good music video.

Information

• Finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
• Seeking advice on practical matters of opinion and decision choices
• Satisfying curiosity and general interest
• learning; self-education
• gaining a sense of security through knowledge

Personal Identity

• Finding reinforcement for personal values
• Finding models of behaviour
• Identifying with valued other (in the media)
• Gaining insight into one's self

Integration & Social Interaction

• Gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
• Identifying with others and gaining an sense of belonging
• Finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
• Having a substitute for real-life companionship
• Helping to carry out social roles
• Enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment

• Escaping, or being diverted, from problems; relaxing
• Getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment filling time
• Emotional release
• Sexual arousal

In terms of information, several areas have been highlighted for a reason; the main theme of our music video is that life will present you with struggles, that aren't necessarily life-changing, but they're still struggles and everyone goes through them. Our characters will be put through situations that most audience members in our targeted audience (can relate to. This also links to social interaction as they feel they can identify with others. But in terms of underlying message, it's that you can still be happy and enjoy life, no matter how bad things get. The lyrical link will be evident with the mise-en-scene heavily as the lyrics will be re-created visually.


Although personal identity only has one section highlighted, it could really have all sections highlighted as the focus is around people and their problems. As we're trying to inspire other people to not lose hope and keep pushing through whatever problem they might be facing, our video of course tries to help give insight into the audience's self.


The same can be said for integration, some people might view our video with no option to relate at all, but they may be able to be empathetic towards other audience members or realise what other people go through. Just as a reminder; we're trying to expose problems to the audience that they might be going through or might not be, but with the outcome being happy - that those people or the audience, can get through it. Be positive!


And finally, of course we want to entertain the audience, that's our band's style; to have fun. We'll inject some light hearted comedy within the video to keep things interesting and not completely upset or bore the audience.

Album Ideas and Update

Hey again,


Alex and I have been discussing ideas for an album, including shots to use for the covers, as well as names we can use for actual songs as well as the album. In terms of pictures, Alex mocked up some sketches that we could use for our website or our album, we're still deciding upon that. But here they are:


The top image we've discussed as being our main image for the website, which I described in a previous blog post - as we took inspiration from Pet Shop Boys to adopt a similar style. In terms of recognising our audience, we've tried to create a more modern, geeky twist to music to relate to a new genre/group of music lovers - as we've realised a certain gap in cool, geeky but modern artists. In today's market artists are quite serious, pop artists that are more of a brand than an song writer. Such as Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.


As for progress, currently Alex and I are using Wix.com to create a website, we're also still in stages of shot lists, logo/album designing and other small tasks. Within the next week or so we hope to have completed designing our website, and personally I hope to have completed all audience tasks and at least finish Institution and start Academic Theories.


Alex has also been working tirelessly at home to create designs we've discussed when planning album covers. As our band name is 'Apollo AD' we thought about naming our first album 'Lift Off' to signify our blast into the music-sphere. The pictures will be posted as soon as I save them and upload them.

VEVO - Case Study

Hello people of Earth,

As I've been behind this month, I've done a short case study on a rather large and successful music-industry based company. Over the years, VEVO has grown to adopt a global stance in the music industry, providing music videos and other forms of entertainment on the internet, whilst recently expanding onto the television.




Vevo is available in Australia, Russia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The website was scheduled to go worldwide in 2010, but as of January 1, 2016, it was still not available outside these countries.Vevo's official blog cited licensing issues for the delay in the worldwide rollout. Most of Vevo's videos on YouTube are viewable by users in other countries, while others will produce the message "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." The Vevo service in the United Kingdom and Ireland was launched on April 26, 2011

Website Planning

Hello!

Apologise for the lack of posting, I shall use this week to bump up the count. During the last two weeks Alex and I have been planning our website layouts as well as background designs for the site. Logo designing and we're also in the beginning stages of shot lists/storyboarding as well as location scouting. In terms of practice, we've been looking at tutorials explinaing how to edit at a professional level on Photoshop. Here's one of my favourites:



Currently our designs (screen grabs will be posted) consist of very geeky, modern style photographs for the background of our website. The homepage consisting of the two of us, dressed as mad scientists with explosion ruminants on our faces. We've based it around the Pet-Shop boys style:

Specifically this picture highlights the aspect we are trying to replicate; the artist duo with a plain white background, although we wish to develop this style further by having a close-up of our faces with a different style of mise-en-scene - we'd like it to be more geeky and science-like.

More ideas for logos aswell as guidance with editing for photographs will be edited onto this post.

 

Pitch Video

Hey!

So after finally pitching our ideas to a 'producer' (our teacher) we edited and uploaded the video. Throughout the meeting we had to explain our ideas, referring to our audience constantly and giving reasons as to why we wish to create a music video based on the song 'One Little Slip'.

The main theme we're going with is that in life we all make mistakes. Massively bad events don't have to happen in order for us to feel a little blue. With the video, we'll show that the little things in life don't get us down and we can get through things, big or small!

Anyway here's the pitch, take a look.

Music Video Regulation

Hey!

Copyright Information

Hello,

In order to actually create our music video, Alex and I have had to email the owners of the song (Disney). Even though the chance of them actually responding is very slim, requesting permission is still important. This is what was sent:

"I am writing to you to request permission to film a music video version of your song 'One Little Slip'. This forms part of my OCR A-level Media Studies course where my task is to record a music video to a song of my choice. It is only for assessment purposes and will not be used for any commercial or profit seeking purposes. I acknowledge your copyright of the material and will not use it for any other purpose than that stated above.

If you require any further information or clarification regarding the use of this material for
educational purposes please contact my teacher Mr Welch (welchch@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk)"

 

 

We'll begin storyboarding and scheduling pretty soon, which will kick-off the pre-production where we'll plan where to film, what we'll film, how we'll film it and allocation of time. 

Camera Shot Ideas

Hello there!

Alright so Alex and I are looking at some videos and guides to help us thought-shower ideas for shots we can include in our music video. Something that I'm looking at it selective colour, which we'll hopefully in-corporate into our own music video somewhere, not entirely sure where yet.

The idea can be progressed with a shot of leaves falling around someone, with only the leaves in colour, and the rest of the scene in black and white. In my head it seems like a cool shot to implement. We'll get to testing this technique out soon. (Like we did with the cloning in the pre-lim) This will allow us to learn and practice the technique before we implement it for real and will hopefully be polished up.

I'll be uploading more videos similar to these as we want to use new techniques to break the boundaries that we're used to. We want to bring bigger and cooler things to our screen to try and show off our abilities. If we're able to implement new effects then it show's how knowledgeable we are and how well we can learn techniques.

More Theory!

Hi,

So, some more theory which I believe is useful for addition to my blogger.

 

Music Video: Pitch

Hey!

After some collaboration, Alex and I hae created our one page pitch, ready for delivering to Mr. Welch:

 

Music Industry

Hey,

What does the music industry do for...?

Artists: Promote them - advertising, merchandise, posters etc. Manage them - give them a style and help negotiate gigs and deals.
Us: Provide us with music/entertainment.
Themselves: Make money, create a global brand/artist. Help unknown artists become famous.

Digital downloads may have saved the music industry rather than killed it off.

Interview with Hartwig Masuch, CEO of BMG

The balance of power is gradually swinging from music executives to its creative community and that a good thing
That days of massive advances for artists may be over but equally companies such as BMG are looking at 70% revenue contras acts for artists.

In general, the music industry has several levels of purpose:
1) Their main purpose is to get, because at the end of the day the companies are businesses, who need profit to stay active.
2) Provide the public with entertainment; if they didn't fulfil this purpose, then they would fail at the entire reason they were created - to produce music.

Music Video Ideas

Hey,


The song Alex and I have chosen to do for our music video is called Knew Little Slip' by Barenaked Ladies. The song is recognised as being in the film 'Chicken Little'. Our target audience, although not developed as to motive, we've decided will be teenagers. Which is why we've also chosen to do the song we are doing as our audience will have grown up watching films like Chicken Little. if not, then the song is something different and new to them that they can enjoy. Plus, the song does not have an official music video, which is why we've seen it as an opportunity to create one for it.





In terms of ideas, we want to try and create all of the scenes within the lyrics to match the visuals. We'll include all of these ideas in our pitch ofcourse, which will be posted later. But that's it for initial ideas.

Famous CD Covers

Hello!




So as apart of my research, I've looked into the some of the most famous CD covers of all time. I used 'Padlet' to help create a cool looking post.

Created with Padlet

Stars and Stardom

Hello!

The term 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Common values of music stardom:

- Youthfulness
- Rebellion
- Sexual Magnetism
- An anti-authoritarian attitude
- Originality
- Creativity/talent
- Aggression/anger
- A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
- Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
- Success against the odds

Richard Dyer

Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:

 - A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])
 - Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
 - Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, the internet - in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed for their target audience.
 - The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.
 - Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent,  that is incomplete and 'open'. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1

- The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.

Paradox 2

- The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The Star Image

- The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sense of' of the image.
- This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products.
- In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.
- This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.
- Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominate social values (that is hegemony).
- Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system).

Media Regulation

Hey,

 

 

This is just work we're going through in lesson. So 'Media Regulation' can be described in this way:

-       Regulation/Regulator – set of rules or guidelines usually agreed between media organisations and public organisations in order to make media organisations more accountable for what they publish. Usually this is overseen by an independent regulatory body who may have the power to issue fines or warnings.

-    IPSO regulate newspapers, voluntarily though. They may issue fines.

 

TV Stations - answerable to Ofcom:

- They have to have editorial standards which fall within Ofcom's code of conduct

- A government or court can place reporting restrictions on a case. So, for example, if a teenager is involved in a serious crime the court can order that his/her identity is not revealed.

- Celebrity super-injunctions: Ryan Giggs case.

 

User Generation Content: where the content is created by the person not just shared piece of reporting from a media organised (TV/News) - or re-tweeted.

 

BBFC Regulate Music Videos, voluntarily, it's not the law. Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK and Warner Music UK:

- Drug misuse

- Dangerous behaviour presented as safe

- Bad language

- Sexual behaviour and nudity

- Threatening behaviour and violence

 

'Light touch regulation'

 

Creative Practice

Hey!


So I was a little bored and decided to mess around with some editing software and came up these ideas for a film company logo and another(!) CD Cover:

 

Music Video Genres: Features of Rock

Hey!

So for our theory lessons we have been studying features of certain genres and what makes them, them. I made my genre features study on Rock, which I turned into a presentation:

Rock music video characteristics from Daniel Haywood

CD Cover Ideas

Hey,


I've been messing around with the shots Alex and I took for CD covers, check them out!
   



 
 
 
 
 

Music Video Analysis

Hey,

For this post, I'll analyse the 'Take On Me' music video using media theories we have learnt about over the last week.

Created with Padlet

Rihanna BBHMM

Hey,

In lesson we reviewed an article discussing the controversy surrounding Rihanna's music video 'Bitch Better Have My Money.' It's fair to say that a lot of news outlets, journalists and the general public are more-than-a little displeased about the video.

The 'Video Games' column, firstly explains what the video actually is: "Rihanna's accountant has stolen her money so Rihanna kidnaps his snooty wife, stuffs her into a trunbk, strips her half-naked, hangs her upside down, gets her drunk, half-drowns her and then stabs the accountant to death. Finally, she has a relaxing smoke in a trunk full of cash while naked and covered in blood."

The article goes onto to explain the backlash the video received on the internet, following its release. After watching the video myself, I can see just in fact how the video caused controversy; the gore, the violence against women and drug usage all paints quite a dark picture for Rihanna. The lyrics themselves aren't exactly family friendly either, with the reoccurring line 'Bitch better have my
Money' appearing several times throughout the song.

The general consensus from the article is that Rihanna's video is 'just something pop do at a certain point in their careers.' The article explains that the "event video" has its own conventions, as if it were a genre,: it must be long, self-regarding, hubristic and flamboyantly expensive.The article goes into further detail by saying that pop-stars like 'Micheal Jackson' and 'Axl Rose' have all made this sort of video which usually concern the pop star's fantasies. Is it saying then that Rihanna's fantasy is to be a drug-smoking, sex-crazed woman-beater? Apparently an event video is 'designed' to project power and money but usually ends up revealing an artist's fatal flaw just before it swallows them. It's all quite serious.

Personally I think Rihanna is just trying to convey a message about society, to show how we've grown to be relaxed around this sort of taboo media - sex, crime, violence and drugs. All she has done is put it all together into one video. But really, we see it in drips and drabs everywhere, on adverts, TV, films, games and even clothing. Rihanna's video doesn't cross any sort of boundary, we crossed that with films like the Human Centipede and GTA V. (which has sex, drugs, violence and crime - all of which teenagers can play by the way).

Rihanna has bridged a gap aswell - she has shown how the music industry is at fault too, that lyrics has been vulgar, racist, violent and other things too. But by putting it in a music video, she has reached to parts of society that may be blind to the fact that the media harbours a lot of negative things.

More Music Video Theory

More theory...


Goodwin's Features:
- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
- There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (lyrics are represented with images)
- There is a relationship between music and visuals (tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflects that of the music)


-The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist, and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. (a visual style)
- There is frequently reference to notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
- Often intertextual reference.


The Process
- Record company/label/artist approach a video production company.
- The director listens to the music and comes up with their own idea, 'a treatment'. S/he pitches it to the company/artist.
- If they like it, they buy in. If not, they go elsewhere.
- Some directors specialise but will take on other genres.
- Some also go onto direct features films.

Music Video Genre Theories

During our media lesson, we learnt several theorists for music video genre.


John Hartley (1994) - argue that genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given 'text'. (Suggest genre acts as a straight jacket, limiting creative potential)


Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1988) - says genres 'control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers.'  (Again, suggest that genres can limit creativity and often merely conform to the audience expectations.)


John Fiske (1987) - asserts that generic conventions 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular.' (This suggest that genres tell us something about the way of the world in the time they popular.) (The zeitgeist)


Rick Altman (Film theorist) - argues that there is no such thing as "pure" genre anymore. That genre is progressive, in that it will always change. He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past. His theory suggest that audiences, in general, have become tired of the same formula and need more to keep them entertain and to generate appeal.

- Altman also said that genre is only surviving due to hybridisation - or genres "borrowing   conventions from one another and thus being much more difficult to categorise."

Keywords:

Intertexuality - reference to other media texts.

Pastiche -

imitate the style of (an artist or work).

Parody - makes fun of something.

Genre - type of music with similar characteristics.

Sub-genre - a branch or off-shot of a genre which shares some characteristics but perhaps develops or challenges usual characteristics e.g trap music.

Media Theory

Hey,


So to help further my understanding of certain aspects of media and music, I researched into the big theorists that have changed the way we consume media and music, over the past few years.


Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze


Film represents women as passive objects of male desire.  Audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male even if they are indeed; heterosexual women or homosexual men.


Bell hooks - The colour codes


Lighter skinned women are considered more desirable and fit better into the western ideology of beauty.  Black women are objectified and sexualised in hip-hop reflecting the colonialist view of black women (sexually disposable). Commoditised blackness, a mediated view of black culture that is considered the norm.


Stuart Hall - The media and therefore audiences often blur race and class.


Often associating particular races with a particular class. Audience reception theory; audiences read/understand a particular text according to their cultural upbringing. Western (white dominated) cultures. Continue to misinterpret ethnic minorities in the media due to underlying racist tendencies. Ethnic minorities are often represented as ‘the other’.


Tricia Rose


Hip Hop gives black female rappers a voice introducing female empowerment. Hip hop gave audiences an insight into the lives of young black urban Americans and gave them a voice.


Robert Moog


Although no one really knows who built the first fretted guitar, or who truly designed the first real keyboard, we do know who created the first pitch-proper, commercially available synthesizer. Robert Moog is widely recognized as the father of the synthesizer keyboard, and his instrument revolutionized the sound of pop and classical music from the day it hit the streets in 1966. Unfortunately, Moog wasn't the greatest businessperson — or perhaps he was just very, very generous with his ideas — and the only synthesizer-related patent he ever filed was for something called a low-pass filter.


----------------------------


I've also checked out what exactly a music video is, which is how I found this explanation: Music videos use a wide range of styles of contemporary video making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, and live action. Combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it resent to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.


Music videos have also become a place where product placement is evident in almost every mainstream video. They are always parent and it usually takes place because the artist is sponsoring a product or brand. An example of product placement is the Beats Pill being featured in numerous hip hop videos. The strong emphasis on product placement is something that has evolved because of the global scale music videos can reach because of websites such as YouTube.

History of Music Videos

Hey!


So whilst researching some info for the history of music videos, I came across this image from myspace which details perfectly what I'm looking for!

1 Minute Music Video - Done!

Hello!
So, after a lot of editing, it's finally done! Enjoy!

One Minute Music Video: Status #3

Hey!

So we've just booked our equipment for Saturday the 16th - we're just taking a DSLR, a focus lens, a tripod and a gorilla pod. Our plan instead of a storyboard is to think of the shots we can use and implement them wherever we feel they'll work within the 1 minute video.

 

We're aware that next week we'll have a lot of editing to do, but we feel we can do it with the knowledge and experience we have with our previous work.

One Minute Music Video: Status #2

Hey!

So today we looked through our practice clip and we've concluded how we'll implement. After talking with Mr Welch we decided that making a storyboard wouldn't be in our best interest as there's just too many shots to put down to paper so what we will do, is just list out the shots that we hope to include. Of course on the day they're subject to change as we'll have new ideas on-set.

We've also found a good place to shoot, my grandparents are pastors of a church which has a big stage and instruments. I'm 99% sure they'll let Alex and myself use the space for one day of filming. We're also trying to find a trumpet to borrow, hopefully from Expressive Arts. Things are coming together.

Until next time.

Editing Practice

Hello again!

So we've been busy bees coming up ideas for our 1 minute music video; we want to be able to have a music video where I am in the same scene several times playing the instruments. Basically cloning myself. At first we had no idea how to do it, only that we knew it could be done.

After checking out some YouTube videos and some messing around with premier pro, we found out how to do it! It's not difficult, just requires a lot of filming. Considering our music video will be 1 minute in length and will have loads of different shots, it will definitely take awhile. But we're confident it can be done!

Below is a screenshot from our practice segment; we cloned Alex and made him talk to himself, we got a real laugh out of it and it worked perfectly! We're looking forward to implementing it into our 1 minute video and hopefully, it will look awesome. 

30 Second 'Happy' Music Video

Hello again,

So I'll get straight into it: We finished our 30-second segment and it's not uploaded onto YouTube. Enjoy:

One Minute Music Video: Status

Hello,

It's me...I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to mee... Ok, I'll stop. Anyway, we've finally decided, Alex and I, what song we'd like to do for our one minute piece: We've chosen Come Fly With Me. The Michael Buble version. We've done this as we prefer the modern edge that Michael brings with his voice rather than Frank Sinatra.

We've flung back and forth some ideas about what we can do, not putting anything on a storyboard just yet. Something we like is the start out in black and white, then fade into bright, blocky, modern colours. I shall be on a stage(which we have a location for) by myself singing. Something we thought we'd try is having the camera remain in the exact same position, and just record me playing different instruments. Then when we put it all together when editing, we can apply the ghost effect and overlap the recordings - in theory, it'll look like I'm playing all the instruments in the same scene aswell as singing. Fingers crossed it works; we're going to try it out on a short 5-second clip beforehand to make sure it works.

We like the idea of an older song with a modern twist on it. We looked through older songs that didn't have music videos like Come Fly With Me and Mr Sandman and others. (Technically Come Fly With Me does have a music video but it's not very well known nor is it the most well-known version of the song).

I still have some more posts to make so I'll be back posting shortly. Alex isn't sure if he wants to do his final project alone or not, so he's taking this period of time to see whether or not he'd prefer to be alone or with me, essentially.

Music Video Analysis: 'I'm Blue'

Hey,


As another exercise to help expand our knowledge about the types of music videos, we were tasked with analysing a music video that was created before we were born. My choice of music video is 'I'm Blue' by Eiffel 65:








There are four areas which I'll briefly analyse to get an idea of how this music video looks.


Camera:

• The majority of the music video is actually special effects captured using a green screen, however the shots used when focussing on the band focus around mid shots in order to highlight there are that they are located in as it's an unusual setting (space).
• Some shots when action is involved are varied to try and emphasise the action sequence. For example within the video one of the band members is seen punching blue aliens, but to stop the sequence becoming boring the camera turns around 360 degrees. Metaphorically it could replicate the chaos of the situation and how peculiar everything is.  
• Several establishing shots are used throughout the video as the setting is constantly changing: at first the band are in a ship, then we see blue aliens in a ship in space. Then we see a space station and then inside a tunnel presumably on the space station.

Editing:

• Like mentioned previously, the scene where the shot is captured is constantly changing, therefore the editing is quite fast paced with a lot of cross-cutting being used.
• The editing also cleverly uses the lyrics to its advantage as often the lyrics are replicated or linked with what is being shown. For instance when the chorus 'I'm blue' is heard, the scene switches the blue aliens singing this.

Mise-en-scene:

• Again, like I said before, the lyrics are often closely resembled to what is being shown. The lyrics themselves are unorthodox which is why a lot of the visuals are as well. This includes all the CGI.
• The space stations, the ships, the alien armour - they all help visualise the lyrics to what the band and the music video director, thought they represent. So when watching the video, you'll be able to make numerous links to the lyrics.
• The fact that these graphics are almost 90% of the video, it's quite impressive considering the year the video was made. Which is 1999 - it shows that the band took a risk when releasing the song with this video as not many other bands had even included small segments of CGI; never mind practically the entire video.

Sound:

• The lyrics themselves are often visualised and linked with what can be seen. The producers created a world where we see blue aliens, space ships and space stations to symbolise the lyrics in a more real way.
• The sound links with the editing as previously stated, as the scene will change according to what verse is being sung. For example when the song explains 'I live in a blue house with a blue window', the scene cuts to a (space) house that it quite blue with windows that are also, you guessed it, blue. The seemingly seamless synchronisation the editing and the sound have, reflects how well made the video is.  
• The lyrics itself aren't bountiful. There are only a few verses and the iconic chorus. This also shows how confident the band was in their ability to make a good music video as now, music fans often enjoy music for the video or remember a song, for its video.

Application of Goodwin's Features:


   1. In terms of genres characteristics, it's quite difficult to analyse; this song branched out into a new genre so to speak in terms of video - the graphic effects and CGI had only just started to make it's way into film, never mind music videos. So like mentioned previously, the producers took a leap of faith with this video as it was in its own category.
  
   2. There is certainly a relationship between the lyrics and visuals like mentioned previously; the images represent the 'I'm blue' line as there are blue aliens everywhere. The blue house and blue windows are al included within the visuals.


   3. The music itself is also linked with the visuals as they reflect the tone of the sound; which is upbeat and quite lively.


   4. In terms of motif, the artist have substantiated their style as something quite crazy, effects heavy. The record label may have had a influence in the video, however the close-ups of the band are quite limited.


   5. In this video, there are no women. There is however a stage where the artist performs and certain shots that reflect a voyeuristic view.


   6. As the music video was made before I was born, I am not too sure about any intersexual references that may have been made to other pieces of music if films. However the space-theme may link to other space films that were made around the time of the music's release.   

Happy Music Video Practice

Hello again,

So as a preliminary task we had to group together and replicate a section of the 'Happy' music video which can be found here:

Our group, which was made up of Alex & Amy from my year 12 project, were tasked with the segment that started at 1:00 and ended at 1:30. First we created a storyboard, which included a variety of shots, as the original music video does. As the original had a sort of random feel to its characters and scenes, we felt that having our shots in peculiar places would help replicate the 'randomness' the original video creates.

These shots compromised of scenes from the library, the toilet, the field and several others. They were so various as like I said before, we wanted to replicated the diverse range of settings that the original video incorporates. Like in our final year 12 project, there are some things that are likely to change with inpisration in the day of filming and adaptations that we may be forced to make. In our music video segment, we did change one or two shots, but many of the shots seen here made it into the final 30 seconds which you'll see in a later post.

 

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Blind Music Video Task

Hey,

So as a warm-up task were given roughly, the first 30 seconds of George Michael's "A Different Corner" without the music video. Our task was to come up with some characters and setting for what we thought would fit the lyrics best.

I had chosen a space setting, with a woman from Earth looking out towards the sky. the camera follows to the sky all the way out the space. We find a man in a space station, looking back down to Earth. Who starts singing the lyrics.

I chose space as the setting as I felt the soft slow towards the beginning of the song was reminiscent of space. Then the exchange in the lyrics felt like it was between a man towards his lover. Therefore the woman on earth is his girlfriend/wife who he dearly misses.

Here's the original song with music video:

Introduction

Hello!


I am back and raring to go. Just thought I'd open up with a short introduction - hello again, I'm Dan. After the success of year 12 Media Studies I hope to continue studying in the subject as I have found the past year very interesting.


I hope I can maintain a positive attitude and continue to work my hardest throughout this next year. Our final project was great, but let's make this year's even greater!