Planning: Group Preliminary Task (Budget Britney)

Evaluation

What we did/how we did it: As a class, we created a music video for the song 'Baby One More Time' by Britney Spears. Everyone had some sort of role, Tawanda and I were cinematographers, David M was the director, David S and Kyle were main singers and everyone else were the back up dancers. The purpose of this activity was to get used to the cameras and editing. Using 2 cameras, we had more options to which footage was best to use.

WWW/EBI: Filming our Budget Britney had both good and bad. Here is a list of them:

What Went Well -

• Everyone co-operated well and thoroughly followed the Director's instructions.
• We had 2 cameras in process so it was easier and more efficient to film as we then had options of which parts to use in post.
• We managed to sync the audio with the visuals to make it look like a conventional music video.
• We incorporated cutaways, such as the clock ticking and pen tapping, to add make the audience more interested in watching and it also went with the audio.
• The use of stabilization on the close ups when released from the tripod was very realistic and the camera is still. 

Even Better If -

• We only had limited time to film the extract of the song - if we had longer time, we might have been able to be more innovative with the outfits and acting/miming. 
• We used perhaps match on action or three point lighting,
• We could of filmed the whole song and perhaps had found a better location / more suitable actors for the roles.
• We could of perhaps also tried filming a genre of music which is similar to our genre (rap) which is more relate-able to our music video, however i do understand it has helped us to show variety in our filming.  

Skills learnt/how this experience can be used for filming: During the process, we learnt more about the camera itself. We learnt how to change the settings of the camera in terms of ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

The ISO goes from 80-3200 and it mainly controls the 'noise' of the visuals. 'Noise' is the grainy and hints of blur that may sometimes not be noticeable while filming, but very prominent in post. It also changes the light sensitivity of the camera which therefore adds artificial light to the visuals. We will be considering this whilst filming our music video because it is vital that we have the least noise as possible for it to look professional and like a conventional music video.

The aperture controls how much light travels in the camera. It is the main control of non-artificial light as the larger the hole, the more light passes to the camera sensor. We will be experimenting with the aperture while filming to see which focal ratio we want as we will be changing from dark lighting to brighter lighting.

The shutter speed is the length of time a camera shutter is open to exposure light into the camera sensor. It is measured in fractions of a second. The slower the shutter speed, the more light it allows in and vice versa. Therefore, while filming, we will be using a slow shutter speed in most the artist scenes as more light will be allowed in an already low light area.

Planning: Audience Feedback to Animatic

Planning: Storyboard - Animatic

Planning: Storyboard, Still Frames

The Process of Creating Our Still Frames

All Artist Frames Together

All Narrative Frames Together

Final Still Frame in Chronological Order

Still Frame from Shane Santillan

Planning: Moodboard

Moodboard

This mood board best show the main picture that represent the genre and culture of grime and hip-hop as you can see the genre its self generally derives from a plethora of social problem and a struggle for black students. Also the genre as well involves substance abuse and distribution illegal or not however regardless of this the genre has caught the attention of the public and mainstream audiences.

Planning: WordBoard - Aidan

Word Board

These are just a few words to describe our song choice / genre of the music video we will be making. We as a group believe that these words are the embodiment of the Rap/Hip-hop genre as they are relatable to current similar media texts, especially in the sub-genre of grime. As grime was a music genre that developed on the streets of London these words are all portraying that street element of our song. if we compare to current song texts racism is a subject mater that is heavily touched upon. Will try to portray all of these words in our music video.

Planning: Costume - concept, examples, feedback - Aidan

Costumes for music video from Aidan Bradshaw

This is a video of some audience view on my costumes I have chosen for my music video.
 

Planning: Location - stills, analysis. audience feedback

Locations for our music video from Aidan Bradshaw


This is some audience response to my locations idea for my music video.

Planning: Shot List

This is our shot list that we should follow when filming on the day. It can also be followed when we edit in the post-production process. We made this in relation to our narrative because our shot list should reflect what we want our final video to look like.

Planning: Timeline - Aidan

Timeline for Filming Days 

Planning: Group Pitch to class

Planning: Our Plot - Vianca

Our Narrative

--- Narrative

--- Artist

--- Camera work

--- Editing

CU of straight face. Protagonist is shot. (SONG STARTS) CU zoom into an ECU of the protagonists’ face/eyes. Then zooms back out and He wakes up and it’s another day in his bedroom. Slow fade - Artist is sitting on a chair in light room looking down. Pans outwards. He gets ready camera pans vertically across his desk full of detention slips Artist raps to the camera runs down stairs then walks out of his house. He pulls out a roll up. Artist raps to the camera and his neighbour, who is dressed in a suit and tie CU from shoes to face ready for work, quick shot-reverse-shot from protagonist to neighbour looks at him in a snobby manner CU of screw face and walks towards his car. The protagonist shakes his head and walks the opposite direction. Slow fade. Artist raps to the camera stands up from seat, room is a little dimmer. Quick view of dark room. He stands in front of a poster that says “BLACK LIVES MATTER” but “black” crossed out and had “ONLY WHITE” camera is behind him, moves forward onto his back then transition to first person view – he looks at a person ( who is “him”) but then they disappear after he looks away again. Artist rapping to camera with cigarette. He walks on further and sees a teenager (“him”) getting robbed by 2 white guys dressed in all black. Camera is behind the 2 white guys, can’t see “him” getting robbed yet. The 2 boys turn around and they are seen with a knife, so the protagonist walks faster. Artist rapping around the room. Camera goes through the 2 white guys and see that it is “him” who is getting beat up. Walking on, he sees 2 teens handling drugs – a young guy gives a big baggie of drugs to the other guy (“him”) MS who exchanges with a handful of money ECU of this process. Artist smoking, stunting. The protagonist walks away first person camera, keep looking back but realises the guy who bought drugs (“him”) is following him. Artist staring at the camera. He walks faster but ends up in a dead end with the same 2 white guys at the start first person - quick shift from 1^st guy to 2^nd guy then turns around He turns around and “he” gives the drugs to the guys beside the protagonist First person view – look down at drugs and 1 guy from the side’s hand takes it and “he” is shot – in the exact same way as the beginning. Very slow fade - Artist sitting looking down in a dark room, putting out cigarette. 

Planning: Mini Pitch - Vianca

Mini Pitch to Group

 

Planning - MINI PITCH - Aidan

Mini pitch for music video 

Planning - Mini Pitch - Tawanda

Planning: Initital decisions with audience response - Aidan

Initial decision

My initial decision was to use an EDM/House track and to create a montage of clips from a track we could find. 

My first idea which we would have us travelling around a city perhaps London and showing our adventure on a day out. I was thinking along the lines of being a tourist of a day in London.  So this would of had us using the Barclays bikes, on the London eye, in a black taxi, walking down regent street (shopping etc)

My second idea was to try and show a couple on a day out, showing how two people can be together and what they get up too on their adventures. For this video I got inspiration from the music video of 'Wanna do' by Joe Weller. 

Both of these songs would have no lyrics.

I then asked a few people about my ideas and this is what they had to say....

From this I could see that my ideas are very basic and that they just don't really make much of sense for a music video. It more of an you tube / film montage of clips and would not show off my music video. Also I found that due to not having any words in my music video it may be difficult for my video to connect with my audience. I also find that I will move away from the EDM genre and explore the grime/rap genre.

Planning: Permisson sought for use of audio track - Aidan

This was my message to Ethan









This was his reply

Overall Ethan was happy with us using his track as he is the producer.

Technical Skills: Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds  is a concept in video and film production in which the frame is divided into into nine imaginary sections, shown below. This creates reference points which act as guides for framing the image.

Points (or lines) of interest should occur at 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up (or across) the frame, rather than in the centre. Like many rules of framing, this is not always necessary  but it is one of those rules you should understand well.

In most "people shots", the main line of interest is the line going through the eyes. In this shot, the eyes are placed approximately 1/3 of the way down the frame.

This is the 9 box square layout. 

We experimented with the camera using rule of thirds. Here are our results.

This is a picture without the rule of thirds. 

This is a picture with the rule of thirds based on the top left box.

This is a picture with rule of thirds based on the top right box.

In conclusion from this activity, we will be mainly considering the top corners boxes of rule of thirds.

Technical Skills: Green screen and Dolly

Green screen and Dolly

 We used the green screen to pratice our technical skills using the green screen.

Here is the video we produced.

Alongside this we also used the greenscreen, alongside with the use of a Dolly. 

Here is the video we produced, combining both.

Technical Skills: 3 Point Lighting

KEY TERMS

 Key Light: This is the main light. It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the screen and the audience viewer.

 Fill Light: This is a secondary light and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key and would be very helpful in our thriller opening sequence

Back Light: This is placed behind the subject and lights in from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting, its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the characters outline. This would be very useful in a thriller to create a more scary and horror effect.

Technical Skills: Balance Lighting

BALANCE LIGHTING 

This is both the use of lighting inside and out. The two videos show the comparison of the lighting change from the original access of light to filter used on the cameras.

Lighting Inside 

Lighting Outside

Research: Digipak & Analysis - Aidan

What is a Digipak?

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipak-style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s. 

The incentive is basically the extras added to the CD/DVD in addition to the actual disk and its case with front and back covers. It will include Front, Back, Spine and at least four additional panels.

From my research I found there is current trends with a Digipak. For example if the digipak was made for a horror film or heavy metal artist the coloring would be a lot darker compared to a pop song or child's film. This is because there is a different target audience for each of the digipaks. 

Layout of an Digipak

This is a 6 fold digipak, which is a more modern

                                     fold.

 This is the traditional 3 fold layout which is more                                   popular

Analysis of two digipaks

Research- MAGAZINE ADVERT - Aidan

Magazine Advert

Introduction

A magazine advert is type of advertising used as a marketing tool to gain anticipation around a specific release. For example below I will be analyzing magazine adverts for artists which release music. They do this before an album or track is released so that there is a chance that more copies will be sold.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

• More targeted: specific magazine titles appeal to specific target groups more so than a newspaper advert.
• Long Life: magazines have a longer “life” than newspapers, they sit about in doctor’s waiting rooms, magazine racks and with collectors.
• Pass-on readership – people may pass magazines on to their friends and family which will increase exposure of your advert
•  Status – some magazine titles are well respected in their field, so an advertisement in these will increase your product/service’s prestige by association. For example typical magazines like Heat

Disadvantages

• Deadlines months in advance – magazines often require the ads to be submitted weeks or months in advance. This means you have to ensure your marketing strategy is in place well in advance. It also means that testing adverts can be a lengthy process!
•  Cost of testing – colour artwork can be more expensive, so small tests are often uneconomical
• Regional testing – can’t often be done as magazines area often national, for example Katy Perry would have to pay multiple different magazines in different countries for the release. This is more lengthy and has to be adjusted to the main language spoken in the country.
• Graveyard – your ad runs the risk of being shovelled into the graveyard of ads in the back of the magazine unless you pay for premium positioning.

Magazine Advert 1 

Research - Magazine advert - Tawanda

The magazine ad is a marketing attempt through media texts, mostly for magazines but can be reused. The magazine advert is used to sell the artist to magazine readers. They cost of this method vary depending on the popularity of the magazine and which side of the page. These are usually just a picture of the artist or band.

Magazine advert

Lana Del Rey: Born To Die

 Ed Sheeran: +

Research - Digi-Pack Analysis - Tawanda

Digi packs and magazine ads are a key element in terms of selling a music artist. Digi packs are the cover for a CD album, they are used to protect the CDs from shattering and scratching during transport. However, the main reason for them is to actually sell the artist through cover art which can range from just a picture of the artist and band or to an artistic cover full of complex colours that represent the artist themselves.

Digi packs

Rihanna: Loud

Unknown Artist: Wonder

Research: Digipak/Magazine Advert Analysis - Vianca

Research - Lyrics Analysis

Lyric Brakedown/Analisis

Dear Lana - Lyrics

I will never fall victim to the system

Channel me down in this institution

Im awoken

Young kids open your third eye and pay attention

Open your third eye pay attention

To many riffles hitting young deciples

No role models no idols

So they walk around with a knife and pistol

Envy the ones that have got it

Aint satisfied til they have it all

Now its enter your pockets pining with a knife against the wall

Youngfull misguided by the hipical rappers who chat shit in their music

But still send their kids back to private school

Don’t chat shit you wanna chat to your own

So in this home grown so deciving… so corrupt

Calling me carzy making assumptions but this system is fucked

I see war… I see I see I see war I see…

Pain… strain… torture

I see young kids selling drugs under pressure

I see that… racism will never be eradicated

Only updated

It’s a trend… see a black life end

Thinking money makes amends

And the family life broken life taken devastaken

They use the power to abuse the mind

I refuse to choose to live this way

Polices more like the KKK, I get my AKK

AND I… spray spray spray spray spray spray spray spray spray

I will never fall victim to the system

Channel me down in this institution

Im awoken

Young kids open your third eye and pay attention

Open your third eye pay a…….

Research: Audience Focus Group

Here is an interview showing 3 music videos of which are somewhat similar to our aspiring music video. Because our genre is hip-hop/rap, we showed the music videos:

- ASAP ROCKY - L$D
- Mura Masa - Love$ick
- Kanye West - All Falls Down

FOCUS GROUP VIDEO

Research - Audience profile - Aidan

Demographic

Rap genre audience tends to be:

-Young males

-Black ethnicity

-Age group 16-25

-Tends to be people listening whom have problems in society such as gang/drug culture

-Student / Working.

How does it appeal:

The rap genre used to stereotypically appeal to young people having an interest to the stereotype of guns, drugs, money, sex and nice cars (luxury), however in our music video we will be trying to show off the message of the song, which will not follow the traditional rap genre. 

Research: Links to Similar Artist/Bands Analysis - Vianca

Added Notes:

Kanye West

- Black artist
- Usually raps about life
- Inspiration to young people

Song: Kanye West ft. Syleena Johnson - All Falls Down

- The song is about a girl who lacks money
- First person camera: the whole video is in first person view and it has a lot of interesting transitions

Research: Unsigned Artist / Band research - Aidan

Unsigned Artist/ Band research

Introduction

For research into our artists my main use of source for an artist was through the social networking sites of YouTube and Soundcloud.

Soundcloud is a global online audio distribution platform based in Berlin, Germany, that enables users to upload, record, promote and share their originally- created sounds.

The Berlin-based music-sharing site is more than just a few indie bands that appeal to hipsters which initially many first users thought sound cloud was all about . The site now has an impressive amount of monthly active users — 175 million at the time of writing — many of whom are sharing some great tunes, trying to be heard and potential make it popular in the music industry. 

This is significantly different to sites like Spotify’s with its  75 million active monthly users as the music on Spotify is released by artists which are signed.

Examples of Artists I found

Artist 1: J- Antz

The first artist I found was a 20 year old artist who goes under the stage name of J Antz. He has a following of 121 followers and has uploaded 8 tracks. The genre which J Antz seems to have content of is predominantly rap. I came across J-Antz as my friends recommended me to listen to one of his tracks. 

His three most popular tracks are 

1) Peckz X J.Antz - Ride or Die (Prod. by LekaaGotWings)  which has 11.3k views, 213 likes and 38 reposts

2) J Antz- Vybe With Me which has  3,716 views, 83 likes and 16 reposts 

3) J Antz - I need (Maverick Sabre Cover) 

Artist 2: hanz

The second artist is a 17 year old music producer called hanz (Ethan) from Twickenham, west london. He has a following of 430 followers and has produced 29 tracks. Ethan tends to produce beats on tracks and then uploads them to his page. Ethan has a versatile range of tracks relating to Dance/EDM, Rap, Hiphop, Jazz and soul.  I came across Ethans page as I am good friend of Ethan's and he is well known within my school community for his musical talent. 

Ethans most popular track is Dear Lana- Kaner flex (Prod. By hanz) which has gained 483 views, 26 likes and 8 reposts. 

Artist 3: Simon Boles

Simon Boles is a Dancer/ DJ whom produces many different sets to house and Drum and Bass mixes, he is well known for his dancing and shuffling skills on the internet with a large online following and millions of views.

His mix's are usually an hour long, and receives on average around 1k views for his tracks, 

Artist 4: St Marks Catholic school (tracks from students)

Finally a page on soundcloud I also looked at was my school's music department page, which consists of many different tracks from students lower down the school.

Personally my favorite track is 'Adjeji' by Aaron Ampofo. 

Conclusion

Overall by looking at all these different artists it has given me a wide range to choose from in terms of genre and type of track which I will use for my music video.  

Research: Audience, Survey Monkey/Social Media - Vianca

I made a survey on the website 'Surveymonkey.com' and got a few people to answer the questions in a detailed manner. Here is the survey I sent out:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VZM9HLD

I then waited and gathered the results in order for me to analyse them. Here were the results:

What was the most recent music video you’ve watched? / What did you think of it?

• Quick start-off question with what their recent music video was to see what kind of videos teenagers watch nowadays. It conveys what sort of genres they watch.
• Variation of old and new music – new artists such as Clean Bandit, Justin Bieber and Charlie Puth and old such as Bryan Adams and Rusted Root. Highlights the variation between different teenagers.
• What they thought of the recent music videos they’ve watched conveys personal opinions of the type of music. Almost everyone liked the recent music video they watched and they mentioned what they like about it – e.g. “creative use of water and fire” and “seeing the artist helped me understand the lyrics”.
• Highlights the variety of different music videos and good and bad things about different types: shows there will always be good and bad things as they fit to different preferences. 
• Someone said they found the video “alright, bit boring” and “didn’t really understand it” which shows that if our video is unclear, people will potentially find it boring.
• I feel like people think they song should go with the visuals – someone said a music video was good because “animation went with the song”, it would add to the clearness of the video and would make it a conventional video.

What makes you interested in carrying on watching a music video in general? / Rank which quanlities you think are the most to the least important for a music video to be entertaining.

• Q5 shows an overview of why people would want to carry on watching a music video in general. Q6 shows what people think are the most and least important quality a music video should have.
• Most people voted “I like the song” and “interest in artist/band” as what makes them interested in a music video. This suggests people have genuine interest before watching a music video and do not just watch a video because “it’s on the TV channel” or “everyone is talking about it”. Personally, I watch music videos if I like the song too, but sometimes, if everyone is talking about it, I’d also have a watch.
• I chose this question because knowing what people think is the most important quality of a music video can convey what quality we definitely need in ours and knowing the least important suggests ideas we can scrap.
• Ranking in order shows what their top preferences are which we could therefore use as guidance when making our music video – in this case the most voted were artist/band featuring and a good storyline.

Why have you ranked this the most important?

• Asking why people ranked that quality at the top will give me a more justified reason as to why we could use it in our music video. 
• Most people ranked “the artist/band featuring” as the most important quality. Because of this, I think we should have the artist featuring in our music video too as it is most likely what people expect. Like people said, it creates the influence and intimacy because the artist/band is solely singing to the audience.
• Some people ranked “a good storyline” as the most important. I personally believe a good storyline keeps an audience, including myself, interested in watching a music video. This is because it gives you a reason to watch it as it would have a meaning and not just random dancers and lights etc. 
• In conclusion, we should have the artist featuring in our video and have a good storyline in order to keep the audiences’ attention and leave with a positive word of mouth.

Why have you ranked this the least important?

• Knowing what they find the least important can help us conclude what qualities some music videos have, but people do not like. In this case, those ranked low, I do not think we have to have them qualities in our music video.
• Most people ranked “flashing/bright lights” as least important because it makes them cringe or they find it a bit over the top. I personally agree with this as I think flashing lights are for pop music videos as they like to flash their money and most songs are quite upbeat and happy – which fits that element.
• Some people ranked sexual/sensual scenes as least important because it doesn’t appeal to them or they are used wrong. I could see where they are coming from because quite a large amount of music videos contains unnecessary sexual activity. I believe this could have bad influences on the young generation because it encourages fantasies. 
• Some people ranked different locations at the bottom because they don’t really take notice of them but I disagree. I think location of a music video is very important because it really sets the scene. It emphasises the visuals and usually interlinks with the song itself.