ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

“One good thing about music is when it hits, you feel no pain.”

Bob Marley

This quote is very true in most circumstances and defiantly links to the experience we had with our pop video, although making a music video can be very stressful and daunting this was not the experience we had with ours. It took us seven months to fully create the pop video, from the initial idea to the final edit and publishing. Although the whole process took a while we enjoyed every minuet of it. There where times where things did not go the way we wanted such as the filming we did with the band. Our original plan was to have the band cut into shots of the girl in the cage and when the beat picked up the shots became short and fast, but when it came to filming we were very unprepared and many of our band members did not know how to play the instruments that were necessary to the song so we had to cut them out, this later became an issue as our song did not portray a clear narrative. If we had the chance to film it all again we would probably be more organized in choosing our band members and our time management as we ran out of studio time to get all the vital shots. As well as our pop video we also created a digi pack and a magazine advert for the song. This was another enjoyable part of creating the video as it gave us the chance to be creative and it also gave our pop video a more professional element to it. All in all I really enjoyed making the pop video and there has been a drastic improvement in my work since my AS level thriller and I have really enjoyed the experience and have gained a small understanding of what it might be like to work in the music video industry, hard work yet extremely enjoyable with the final outcome.

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY- AUDIO RECORDING

The aim of the director's commentary was to help the audience grasp a better understanding of what we were trying to achieve in the pop video. We explained why we chose to edit it in the style that we did with the slow motion shots in contrast the fast cutting ones, we also referred to why we edited it in the out of focus and blurred way we did as it was almost reflecting her state of mind, unclear and blurred. The Mise en scene played a big part in the video and we described the shots, angles, track and pans that we used in order to create a better understanding of what we were trying to achieve using these.

We also discussed the close ups and intimate shots that made you feel as though you were inside her thoughts and engaged in the video. We hoped to have given the audience a clearer idea of how the video can be interpreted differently, by having three of us discuss different areas of the video we hoped that this would reflect the different interpretations of the video. We discussed Keith Negus and his conventions and why we chose to imitate or subvert the few that we used and how, by subverting a few of them this gave the artist the 'edgy' and different image that we were trying to achieve and it helped to establish her brand more.

TASK 3. AUDIENCE. WHAT I LEARNT FROM MY AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Having collected a variety of feedback for our pop video and ancillary products from members of the target audience, and from other audience demographics - via You Tube, a focus group and questionnaire, and other sources, I looked to answer this question.

Jictar can be applied to the pop video in terms of its target audience and the audience that the pop video may reach. Jictar is broken down into terms of class, education, and employment, and often interest, it is grouped into A,B,C,D,E an example of a person who would fit into category 'A' would be someone who was a high paid doctor or lawyer who had attended education until A levels and then very likely gone on to study further education at top universities. Whereas a member of the E category would be a person who has had little or no education and is often unemployed. The categories that the target audience for the pop video fall under are, B,C,D as this pop video can be interrupted on many different levels. a person in category B may get the underlying message that the pop video is trying to convey about women being suppressed or trapped in society. Whereas a member of the C category may see the message of the song as a girl who is hiding something and is contemplating moral dilemmas between right and wrong. The age of the target audience is between the age of 16 to 25 and mostly a female audience as it raises issues relating to women. The interests of a member of our target audience would be perhaps reading as it is an intellectual thing that relates to the big issues that are raised in the song about women in today's society. The type of people in the target audience would be ones of a calm nature as the song does not have any graphic violence in it, although some violent is implied through he lyrics and the falling feathers.

There have been many different responses to this video depending on the viewers interests and up bringing as it can be seen from so many different angles, but most the responses that the video got when on you tube were all good. The video has had 456 views and has been commented on by a number of people, some of these comments include :

"who ever made this video is amazing,"
dkeofhazard

"This is really cool "
caz2435
"beautiful shots throughout, the slow motion really created an atmosphere and mood. "
challli5
"Love the contrast between the fast cutting up beat bits and the slow motion!"
paroilda316

To find out what response people had to the pop video we organised a focus group of 2 boys ages 17, 2 boys aged 18 and 2 girls aged 17 to see what their immediate response was to the video. There was an obviouse initial response from the video as girls seemed to get more from the story than the boys did as the song is mainly aimed at women. We created a questionnaire for them to answer with open ended questions these were,

1. Did you enjoy it?
2. What did you get from the video?
3. what message did you get from the video?
4. what persona for out artist did we establish?
5. Did you identify with the character, if so how?
6. Did you feel a personal relationship with the character, if so how?
7. Were you informed by the video, if so, in what way?
8. Did you get the idea of women being ill treated in society?
9. What did you think of the video not having a narrative?
10. Ways it could be improved, could we have done anything differently?

the overall response to the video was that people got the idea that a girl was trapped in a cage and wanting to get out, the cage may represent society. An idea that also seemed to come across the viewers was that the girl in the video was beginning to rebel against society and fight to get out of the situation she was trapped in. A few of the viewers also thought that the girl was asking them for help as she often reached out from the cage implying reaching out for help. This also adds to the Blumler and Katz theory of personal relationships, as most of the viewers wrote that they wanted to help her, the eye contact with the camera and the close ups on her face also help to enforce the idea of being intimate or personal with the lead singer. When asked what they thought about the fact that the video did not have a narrative, Julian, a 17 year old fun loving guy said, "I thought that a narrative was not necessary as it gave more time to pay attention to the artistic side of the video." Phoebe a 17 year old laid back, indi style girl, said " I really got it, although there was no narrative it gave me the freedom to really feel apart of it as i felt so intimate with the singer when she looked at me."

When asking peers and teachers what they thought about the pop video it was very interesting to see the different interpretations between the age gap. James, a middle aged teacher who is head of the media department said, " the panning shots created the illusion that the cage was swigging and this really added a something unique to the video." But when asking peers what they thought, most of them commented on the contrast between the slow motion and fast cutting and the effect that this had on them, Layla, a 18 year old photography student commented on the use of beautiful shots and the close intimate shots let you into the video and gave the impression that you were inside the lead singers head and thoughts.

According to Start Hall the video encodes a preferred message which the audience decodes and this effects their end interpretation and depends on who the observer is as each person has a different interpretation of the video depending on the dominant reading, the negotiated reading and the oppositional reading.

TASK 2. A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION TO EXPLORE HOW EFFECTIVE THE COMBINATION OF MY MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS ARE?

Blog task 2 exhibbandjdjd

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The answer to this task has four parts.

The firts is to apply the ideas of Richard Dyer and stardom to see what elements we need to put in to establish our singer as a star in the making. The second is the ideas of pop music theorist Carlsson who argues that pop stars are either comerical exhibitionists or telivised bards or electronic shamen. Our singer is the middle one of these.

Thirdly we looked at the idas of Levi Strauss and his idea of universal myths. Our video shows a song concerned with the position of women in socioty, and identity, which are both universal myths. The fourth and last thing is synergy, where we tried to create a pop video that worked with the digi pack and the magazine advert to sell our singer and her song and her brand.

MAGAZINE ADVERT

The magazine advert features the cage as it is a signature part to the video and is featured on the front of the album cover, it shows the connection to the band and the advert. The writing is very simple and to the point. Having our main singer in a hot point attracts attention. Most of the poster is dark but having our lead singer wearing white immediately draws your eye towards the poster and your eye is the lead round and to the singer from the tour dates that create vertical and horizontal lines down the page. The red writing saying, ‘book now’ also draws your eye toward the poster and as it is on a hot point it is one of the first things that you notice and that catches your eye.

DIGI PACK

Our Digi pack was created to be very simple but have a lot of symbolism and underpinning meaning. We added smoke to add to the ethereal feel of our song and set the atmosphere of the type of singer that she is. It is a very simple and plain front cover as we wanted it to have mystery and not give too much away. The cage is empty and surrounded by nothing as this makes it look very lonely which is a theme that is echoed throughout the video. The title of the band is also in very simple lettering as it again creates a sense of mysteriousness as it then makes it difficult for the audience to see what kind of band they might be and it leaves them eager to find out. The lighting is also low and it creates shadows around the cage, reinforcing a sense of mystetry and the feeling of entrapment.





The Inside of our album cover is a lot more stylised with intricate detail in comparison to our two outer covers. The lyrics are printed to the song of our music video all along the inside. Our main singer is also featured as she then gives the song a bigger selling point, she looks very vulnerable yet simple and this gives off the idea that she is very relatable to and not threatening. Her face also appears in the bottom left hand corner in a very faded and out of focus form which also echoes the diffused glow that we used in our pop video. The inside is more detailed yet it is very clear much like our other two covers. Her face is on the two hot points of the rule of thirds stressing her importance to the band. And the lines of the lyrics lead your eye across the page. The colours of the layout are also quite muted and monochromatic so as to enforce the simple feel of the album cover, they also do not distract your eye and it creates a very un-chaotic out come even with all the detail of the lyrics and music.




The back cover is very similar to the front cover as it is simple and has the empty cage on it which gives the idea of emptiness or loneliness which is what a lot of our video portrays. The names of the songs on the album are also featured which gives the viewers more insight into the band and what their style is. The record label is featured with the title on the hot points to enforce their important ness and the layout is simple so as not to distract from the main image. The lighting is very dark and the cover is 30% black and it in forces the ideas that something is being hidden, and this is what most the song is about, secrets and underlying things which are not said.

BLOG TASK ONE . IN WHAT WAYS DO YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Two videos that have many of the similar conventions and ideas as mine do are Pink’s video, ‘please don’t leave me’ and Priscilla Ahn's video ‘Dream’. These both have very non naturalistic elements to them and have a very dream like quality to them. They each create their own world and play on the psyche of the audience, much like our video does. They all follow the convention to disregard realism. Both the videos, ‘please don’t leave me’ and ‘dream’ have subverted many ordinary conventions, like cutting a few seconds after the beat and keep the camera on an obscure angle creating a unique pop video. Another convention these video's follow much like our video is the Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography throughout the video. Both of these video's also have specific lighting that creates mood and atmosphere much like ours does. We also used after effects to create a diffused glow to add to the mystical atmosphere of our video, as the other two video's do to.

For our pop video we researched and analysed the major conventions of a pop video in order to gain more knowledge on pop video conventions we researched Keith Negus pop video conventions which are.
-The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption
-The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)
-A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement
-Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)
-A possible narrative structure
-A possible performance element
-The flexibility to disregard Realism!
-Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
-Use of special effects (lighting, animation, CGIs, in-camera effects)
-A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
-High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)
Each of these began to influence our pop video in some way. We also followed Barthes theory of Plasir where we looked to imitate conventions in order to give the audience expected pleasure. We also began to subvert conventions in order to give jouissance, which as Barthes explains is the unexpected for the audience, and when the two are together they create the perfect balance in a pop video.

We also explored variouse pop videos by bands and singer who had ethereal songs or images similar to our band. These included Beyonce's 'Halo', the early Bjork videos and 'Yellow Submarine' and variouse other Beatles short films that go with their psychedelic songs.

The message in our song can be portrayed in many different ways. It can be seen as a video all about guilt and secrets as the lyrics clearly state in the song, the cage also may be seen as what is caging her in, her seacrets. She is unable to escape or break free from them, they are caging her in. The bird cage may also be seen as an extended metaphor of the girl’s psyche, as she does not sing for the first part of the song it gives the impression that it may all be going on inside her head. It lets the audience into her thoughts. It has many different interpretations. The cage may also be seen as the society that we live in, which she has been trapped or caged in by and she is trying to break free from. The cage also gives us the idea that she is constantly being observed by someone or something as people will watch an animal in a cage.The image and brand of singer has a sense of mystery and a dreamlike quality to it. Our singer seems lost or struggling and this gives off a very vulnerable feel to her although she is trying to break out toward the end, it also begins to create an air of frustration and strength to her. The ethereal atmosphere that surrounds her creates the mood of our singer and what the reset of the song may entail. The opening shot of our video is an abnormal one which subverts many conventions, this immediately shows us what type of singer she is. It is also a high angled shot and so we are introduced to her from an angle that makes her look inferior, again, making her look vulnerable, her clothes and her appearance also make her look rather innocent and this adds a certain attraction to her and the song.


Negus’s conventions are easily displayed throughout our video in many different ways. We either imatate or subvert them but never ignore them. His convention to have ‘The flexibility to disregard Realism’ is what most of our video is surrounded by as it has a very dreamlike and non naturalistic quality to it.
This image portrays that convention as not only is our lead singer in a giant bird cage but the fact that she is not singing gives us the idea that the images are all being played out in her head and we are almost part of her imagination. When the feathers begin to fall it also asks the question whether it is an act of naturalism, if she has killed the bird and its feathers are falling or if they are all in her imagination. Each one of these shots disregards realism.





The opening shot subverts many of Negus’s conventions as it gives the audience the unexpected because often a video will start by establishing the band or singer in a powerful way and let the audience know what is still to come for the rest of the pop video. But this image subverts the expected, as it begins with high angled shot which makes her look vulnerable. She is also on a spinning swing which could also be used as a metaphor for her life, it is spinning out of control and she is unable to stop it, or gain control of it.



Our Digi pack was created to be very simple but have a lot of symbolism and underpinning meaning.We added smoke to add to the ethereal feel of our song and set the atmosphere of the type of singer that she is. It is a very simple and plain front cover as we wanted it to have mystery and not give too much away. The cage is empty and surrounded by nothing as this makes it look very lonely which is a theme that is echoed throughout the video. The title of the band is also in very simple lettering as it again creates a sense of mysteriousness as it then makes it difficult for the audience to see what kind of band they might be. The digi pack, like the magazine advert, follows the rule of thirds by having the key words on the first hot point and the mysetery of the empty swing on the fourth hot point. We also use the idea of black and white connoting art to build up the idea of ouor singer as an artist not just a pop star.

TASK 4: A DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY ON HOW I USED NEW MEDIA THECHNOLOGY IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES

Throughout each stage in the shooting of our pop video, from research and development to distribution and evaluation we have used many different forms of new media technology or digital technology.
We use digital technology because it has at least three times better and clearer quality than analogue technology. The sound is 100 times better and the picture is 50 times better and it has the ability to pick up fine detail and is also a lot faster, cheaper and easier to use. When using analogue technology it is not only more complicated to use but it takes up a lot of your filming time as you need to re adjust the lighting to perfection each time something changes in a scene or shot, this can take a long time and waste precious filming time. But if you use new media technology even if the lighting is not perfect throughout filming, you would be able to adjust the lights during the editing using after effects or other editing formats. A whole film can now be saved using new media technology. It also really helped us on our shoot day as with the camera we were using we were able to re watch a lot of our footage throughout filming which helped us to see what shots we still needed and what was working and what still needed to be done.

Digital technology is New Media Technology, where the technology is based on digital storage and communication of data, using Binary 0 and 1 code to compress the data into tiny packets. The media theorist Negroponte argues that digital technology gives greater speed and ease of production, better quality and huge amounts more of storage space for data in a small piece of equipment.

We used new media technology when doing our research and development by using the internet to research the music industry, our locations, our target audience and the other competition that we were up against. All this helped us to understand what other products were out there and how we could better our video and what market it needed to fit into.
Digital technology played a big part in the planning of our pop video too, as we used it to make our electronic storyboards which were a very key part in the planning of our video, as it then enabled us to see what the possible outcome of our video might be. We also used a digital camera to do our camera tests and this helped us cast our video and see who would work well on camera, fit the part well and be a good advertisement for our video.

The construction or the shoot of our video was made a lot easier by the new media technology we used like the camera which was a JCV500 HD camera. This gave us really high quality in our film and made the whole process faster and easier it also had a high ration which then gave us better visual quality. New media technology also made green/blue screen possible for us. We were then given the opportunity to use but we eventually decided not to film on green screen as our time in the studio was limited and we did not want to rush the rest of the filming.
In the post production of our film new media technology made ‘Adobe after affects’ possible for us which became very necessary and helped us to complete our video in order to get the best outcome.

Without the use of internet we would also be unable to show people our video as there would be no other way publishing or accessing it. With digital technology we were able to make a digi pack in order to promote our band and publicise the song and set up various other forms of advertising using the internet. This is why new media technology is so important to the distribution and evaluation of our video. It lets the public view our video and we are also able to advertise it through various sites on the internet. Such as youtube which is world widely accessed so it immediately gives out video the opportunity to be viewed by the public. We also published our video on Facebook which is a site that has more than 500 million active users, so our video will easily be viewed on the site by people all over the world. These sites also give us the opportunity to get feedback on our video so we can constantly better it.

EDITING OUR POP VIDEO

Assessable link to pop videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/hurtwoodhousemedia

Our pop has been through a huge editing process. Something that started out very simply became quite complicated. We began editing using Final Cut Pro by putting the whole song filmed in a wide shot down and then we began to add different shots in throughout working around our original wide angle that ran the whole way through. We edited the fast bits of the song by cutting each quick shot to the beat in order to create movement and excitement throughout these bits of the song. These bits worked really well and had a great visual effect but the begging did not work so well, we changed the wide angle shot to mid shots of her with pans, but we then came to realise that it was not necessary for her to be lip singing in the begging and as we had so many beautiful slow motion shots from different angles in different styles we decided to use the slow motion shots throughout all the slow bits as this gave the video another layer and more meaning. It allows the audience into the lead singers world a lot more as they feel that because she is not singing the song seems like a thought process of hers and they feel as they are almost in her head and they are being let into her world and her thoughts.


We were quite careful with continuity and discontinuity in our video. At times we wanted discontinuity as it subverted the expectations of a normal video and it also added to the pace and uniqueness of the song and the singer. Our video also does not have a narrative so it was not to vital to have perfect continuity throughout. But we were very careful with some visual elements of continuity as we wanted to make sure that things like her hair were the same from shot to shot as we were constantly cutting shots and it would look like a mistake at times if we were not careful.


We used Adobe After affects in order to give our video a diffused glow around the edges of our shots and we wanted to create a sense of mystery and a dreamlike subconscious quality to our video.

SHOOT DAY

We arrived on the set of our shoot day with a rather vague idea of what we were going to do that day. We knew what we wanted to achieve but we knew we had a tough job to do in order to get there. We all arrived at 9 O’clock and we began to dress our band and do hair and makeup. We then began putting all our set together and making sure we had everything in order. We set up the swing inside our bird cage and we dressed the swing with vines and flowers in order to make our set more atmospheric. We then began setting up our camera and our lights. We then all began deciding on what roles we would each be apart of throughout the day, we decided to alternate all the different roles throughout like who was on play back, camera, lights and costume. As we all got on well within our group it showed us just how important this is in order to work well together.


We then began shooting, we began with a wide shot of the cage but this then led us to realise that the floor of the studio was effecting our shot and was not very attractive on screen, so we went to the theatre to get black material to cover the floor so it would not cause a distraction on screen. We then tried again and we started using the dry ice machine which then led to other problems, the fan was not working properly and the smoke began to fill the camera and it soon became very difficult to see what was happening we also then set off the smoke alarm all of this led to more delays. Once we had sorted out the smoke alarm and the floor we started again. We began shooting and then came to realise that the lighting was not right at all as it was causing shadows across Karis, our lead singers face. It was also too dark when she swung to the back of the cage and the too bright or too shadowed when she moved forward. We finally got everything sorted out and we began our shoot day for the third time hoping we had everything sorted out. It was now 10:30 and as we started so late it led to other problems with time management later on.


Once we had sorted out all our technical problems this gave us the freedom to continue filming and be creative with our ideas in the video. We began filming a few full wide shots, then mid shots and the close ups to make sure we had all the basics of what we need. And then we began shooting a few slow motion close ups on things such as Karis’ face her clothes and other things like her eyes or hands. Once we had a good amount of simple and slow motion shots we then began to introduce the feathers into a later part of our song. We had a cherry picker and a ladder on either side of the cage with people standing on it holding a XXXX filled with feathers, we had a person standing in front of the camera dropping feathers and then three people holding up fans and throwing the feathers in front of them making them all blow into the cage. We had to shoot this part over and over again as we had to get the feathers just right as they all had to begin to fall at the same time. This became difficult as we had so many feathers and they had been blown everywhere but all of this effort, although also very time consuming was worth it as it had a very vital and atmospheric effect on the outcome of our video.


We then began to film the rest of the band, we moved away the bird cage and set up the green screen but as we had lost a lot of vital time earlier in the day we did not have much time to film the band, we also did not have enough time to get all our green screen prepared so we decided to film the band on a black background with the same black floor as the bird cage. We only needed a few good shots of the band as we were going to inter cut the shots of the band very quickly with the bird cage sequences. But we also need the feathers so fall at the same point in the song as it had before. We had four band members, a guitarist, a drummer, a harpist and then our lead singer. We set up the band in a triangle like shape so that our lead singer was at the top of the triangle and the focus on the screen with the rest of the band members on the hot spots on the rule of thirds. We had a few good shots of our band members with the feathers and a few close ups of their instruments but as we had wasted a lot of time in the morning we had to stop filming in order to let the group that were filming in the studio the next day set up for their shoot. So we began to pack up our things and take our footage up to the edit suite. We then had to tidy up all our mess and pick up every single feather we had used, this took almost as long as our whole shoot day had!


We filmed our whole pop video using a JCV500 HD camera which gave us the best opportunity to have a very high quality video. We also used the cherry picker at times throughout our video, we used it in order to make the feathers fall from above and we used it to film a birds eye view shot from inside the cage. We knew that we wanted to use tracks in our filming as we originally wanted to start our video with a close up on Karis’ face and then track back to reveal the cage into a wide shot. We set track around the cage in order to get a 180 pan of the cage from left to right and right to left this had a good effect on a lot of our shots as it let the audience feel intermit with the shot and feel apart of the scene.


I had many shots that I loved from our shoot day but my two favourite were two of the slow motion shots we did. The first one being the shot we filmed using the cherry picker form above the cage. The shot began above Karis on the swing and it began to zoom in to her face as she spun round on the swing looking up into the camera. It was all filmed in slow motion and I think this shot really worked as it is not a normal over used shot, it is unique and I think it will keep audiences interested. The other shot that I think really worked was another slow motion shot that we filmed right at the end. This shot was a tight close up on Karis’ face with feathers blowing towards her as she moved closer to the camera and closer to the bars. This shot really works as it lets the audience feel intermit with the singer as she connects to the camera staring straight into it.
Some shots that we have come to realise that do not work are some of the close ups of the band members playing their instruments as many of them were unsure of the song or how to play the instruments. Our close ups of the instruments did not look realistic as they were not playing the same notes as the notes in the song. And this is why they do not work with the rest of our video, and as we were running out of time towards the end of the day we did not have the time we needed to perfect the filming of the band.


Overall our day went really well. Although we got off to a slow start after having wasted a lot of time sorting out some of the technical problems in the morning. Once we had got going we all worked really well and the atmosphere throughout the day was positive and energetic and I really enjoyed the whole experience as well as the bad as I have learnt from it. I think that together we have created a really good video different from anyone else’s with some really good visuals and that we all balanced each other out really well throughout the day alternating our roles as cameramen directors and everything else that needed top be done.

POP VIDEO PERMISSIONS LETTER

Head of Copyright and Legal Affairs
Universal Island Records Ltd.
22 St Peter Square
London
W6 9NW September 30th 2010


Dear Sir or Madam

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

‘Bird Song’ by Florence and the Machine

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. Only members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board will view the video.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognized in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely

Sophie Evans
Hurtwood House School

An image of Amy Winewhouse, an Island Records star.

INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC INDUSTRY

Musical taste can differentiate depending on the person, it can be a controversial topic almost to the point of tribalism. Tribalism is contentious because people feel that it often defines or signifies their personality and lifestyle. It has become an entire culture, it’s not just about the music but the way you dress, speak or act. It gives people something to be apart of or to follow. The music industry is made up of four trans-national corporations also known as ‘the majors’, which are: Universal, Sony/BMG and EMI. Each major has a smaller subsidiary in order to reach all different kinds of target audiences or genres, much like the film industry. These are known as ‘major independents’, they have very little financial connection with the majors yet they fall under their name. The majors have well known stars and will often spend a million or more on a project whereas ‘independents’ have up and coming stars and will spend 100,00 on a project. Then there are the minis which are the category that we fall under as we have a smaller project with a smaller budget.

We all have to accept that it is a ‘dynamic tension’ that exists between the artistic and commercial forces that support the success of this vast media business. There is a tension between the organic and the synthetic. An organic band is a band that is created out of the love for the music, the music comes first and then from that a band is naturally formed. Whereas a synthetic band is a manufactured band, often created to fill a gap in the market. These bands are often very politically correct so that a wide range of audience will be able to relate to them. Our band is organic as although we have created them they were created to work with the music, the music was not created to work around a band. They also have a personality and are very accessible or approachable to their audience.

A music video is there to serve many different purposes, it promotes the band or song as well as creating a ‘star image’ for them. It also informs and entertains and reinforces, adapts or undermines the ‘meanings’ of a song. And as our music video is the first introduction that people will see to our band it is necessary to make an impact.
Our band has a relatively wide target audience as I think older generations may like the song and the video as it is not to ‘modern’ and younger audiences will all know and like the song as the band is very popular at the moment. The video can get a lot of publicity on a wider range of television as it is not offensive, it can be shown of children’s T.V as it is a very visual video and they will enjoy those aspects even if they don’t understand it whereas older audiences will understand the concept of the video and enjoy it for that reason too.

There are huge threats to the music industry and there is a danger that a pop video will become defunct and irrelevant soon, as technology develops so do the resources for things such as internet downloading of videos, manufactured programs with live feeds and music television is becoming more mainstream. Illegal downloading websites have put music artists at great risk, as a person can buy their song and then copy it to many more who have not paid for it. Artist can own different shares in their ‘empire’ yet if you are an unknown name you could own 100% of everything that is worth nothing, or if you sell to a company, 10% of something. But if you sell to a huge company, such as one of the majors you can own 3% of a lot. Which are what many artists are doing, they then create their own brand of things or an ‘empire’ from there music which was their starting point. Victoria Beckham is an example of a woman who had a successful music carrier but now has brands of many things, like clothes and perfumes and has used her status from her previous singing carrier to get her there.

CALL SHEET

A call sheet is the film makers 'Bible' for the day. The crew will constantly be referring to it throughout the day as it has everything that is vital for the production to continue and move forward.






CALL SHEET

BIRD SONG MONDAY 8th NOVEMBER
GABBY MEECH
HEATHER SCHREUDER
SOPHIE EVANS

Contents

1. Production Team Page 2. Cast List Page 3. Equipment List 4. Studio Set Plan 5. Lighting 6.Props 7. Wardrobe 8. Schedule for the day 9. Storyboard 10. Song Lyrics 11. Shot List

Production Team
Heather Schreuder -07745096963
Gabby Meech -07866792821
Sophie Evans -07500775738

Cast List
Karis Arghiros Lead Singer
Tom Warhurst Drums
Freddie Eastham Guitar
Sophie Loughridge Harp


Equipment List Cameras: Sony PDI 50 JVC1500E
Tracking rails
Dolly
Smoke machine
Studio Set Plan
Human size bird cage
Swing inside the cage
Lighting Bird cage set: Warm colours and simple three point lighting.
Band set: bars across them as though shadowed by the bird cage.

Props :
What the school is providing:
Swing Bird Cage Guitar Drums Harp
What we are providing:
Vines & Flowers Feathers Old Microphone

Wardrobe Pretty Dress for main girl Shirt or tee shirts and jeans for other band members with accessories such as head bands necklaces and bracelets.


Lyrics

"Bird Song"

Well I didn't tell anyone, but a bird flew by.
Saw what I'd done. He set up a nest outside,
and he sang about what I'd become.
He sang so loud, sang so clear.
I was afraid all the neighbours would hear,
So I invited him in, just to reason with him.
I promised I wouldn't do it again.

But he sang louder and louder inside the house,
And no I couldn't get him out.
So I trapped him under a cardboard box.
stood on it to make him stop.
I picked up the bird and above the din I said
"That's the last song you'll ever sing".
Held him down, broke his neck,
Taught him a lesson he wouldn't forget.

But in my dreams began to creep
that old familiar tweet tweet tweet

I opened my mouth to scream and shout,
I waved my arms and flapped about.
But I couldn't scream and I couldn't shout,
couldn't scream and I couldn't shout.

I opened my mouth to scream and shout
waved my arms and flapped about
But I couldn't scream I couldn't shout,
The song was coming from my mouth.
From my mouth, X15


Schedule Morning 9:00-11:00 : Karis in the bird cage 11:00- 11:15 - Break 11:15 - 1 :00 : Proceed shooting Karis Afternoon 2:00 - 4:00: Shooting the band 4:00 - 4:15 - Break 4:15 - 6:00 : Proceed shooting the band
Shot List Camera angle 1 (tracking shot outwards): shot 1
Camera angle 2 (front without bars): 2, 11, 17, 12, 26, 15
Camera angle 3 (harp) : 3, 8
Camera angle 4(guitar) : 6, 9, 37, 35
Camera angle 5(Drums) : 5, 10, 38, 40
Camera angle 4 (feathers on their own) : 16, 33
Camera angle 5 (face shots of people and lond shot of band moving around) : 18, 19, 20, 21 22, 23, 24, 25
Camera angle 6 (Front on with bars): 29, 32, 31, 34, 39, 41, 43, 47
Camera angle 7 (Side with bars): 27, 28, 30, 36, 45, 48 Camera angle 8 (cat) : 42, 44, 46, 48
Camera angle 9 (feather falling): 49

SET BUILD AND LIGHTING DESIGN

SET BUILD AND LIGHTING DESIGN


Although our music video will all be shot in the studio, we need to design an entire human size bird cage. Once we had our meeting with Dan about our ideas and we had settled on the idea of the bird cage we had to get to work making it and helping to design it. We have got a lot of our ideas for the set from the 1992 Coco Channel advert that was set in Paris.

This is our studio and Lighting plan combined.

We also want a swing in our set that our lead singer will be on, much like a bird swing in a cage. We will decorate it with vines and flowers to add more atmosphere and make it more visual to the audience. We will also have some band sequences which will be shot in front of green screen and we will then later in post production, edit in a very out of focus living room, so it looks as though they are all in the bird cage in the living room.

For our lighting design we want to use a lot of warm lighting in order to create a homely feel and create the gold atmosphere of the lighting reflecting off the gold bars of the cage. This lighting will also give our white feathers a gold like tint to them.

CAMERA TEST

Camera testing is one of the most important parts of filming. In order for our pop video to work we need to have the right people. And this is why it is important to camera test. As some people work on camera whereas others don’t. Many actors for years have had a ‘something’ on screen which is indescribable, they have a presence that can dominate an entire screen when put on camera. Actors such as James Dean, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly. Or some modern day actors such as Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp or Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie all have great screen precence which is indescribable.

STORYBOARDING

STORYBOARDING

The storyboard is the plan that you will use to. If it works on paper that makes it a lot less expensive than to waste time on shooting on camera for hours if not days. The storyboards works out the type of shots that we will use, the camera angles, the camera movements, mise en scene, the colours and shapes, and how the picture composition rules will be applied in the film.

Our storyboarding really helped us to bring our music video together, it helped us to get a clear picture of what shots we needed where, the timing of them and it helped us to create strong visuals in our video. We were able to see the shots we wanted and work out the cuts that we wanted. We had to think about the angles and timings of each shot.

We have used lots of close ups in our storyboard in order to emphasise people and there instruments. As our song has some very slow bits and then some fast bits, we have used our storyboards to show the fast cutting bits from peoples faces to their instruments and we have decided to film bits of the song extremely fast to then be able to put it into slow motion in our editing yet still have her singing in time.
A tracking shot that we have storyboarded is a shot that begins with a close up of our lead singer’s mouth the camera then slowly tracks back to reveal her eyes and then the rest of her face. This camera movement helps the audience to feel involved and part of the shot, it gives them a sense of intimacy with the action that takes place.

We have used a lot of fast cutting shots in order to create action and excitement and to keep our audience intrigued throughout. We also have a ‘dance’ sequence which is based on a band called OKGO, this sequence will take a lot of editing as it will have a lot of slow-motion, fast cuts and movement. The band will jump from one are to the next using fast cutting.

This is an image of a stroyboarder at work. Storyboarding takes time and percision. Artists have been storyboarding since the early 1930s and one of the first films to have been completly storyboarded was 'Gone With the Wind'. Storyboarding can become extreamly tediouse and takes a lot of time and effort. The image below on the right is an eight minuet animated cartoon strip. It has over 70 detailed images and probably took hours to draw and it is only worth 8 minuets of film.

I looked at this seminar by Steven Spielberg on how to storyboard and we have learnt and been influenced greatly by it for our storyboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBH89Y0Xj7c&feature=related

TIMELINE

TIMELINE

A time line is used for creating a first try at putting the lyrics of the song together with the music and times in the song. This helps us to see what will work and what wont. We are able to get a ruff outline of our shots before we begin storyboarding.

An example of what did not work when we created our timeline was the length of some of our shots, our timeline helped us to realise that some of our shots were too long and that they needed to be quick, short and fast cutting in order to create pace and excitement in our video.

A different example of what really worked when we used our time line was our tracking shots, as these depend on our timing of the shots. We needed to be able to know how long to stay in a tight shot for in order to track out with the right timing and to then cut on to another shot.

We then began to build on our timeline by creating our storyboards.These helped us to have a clearer understanding of what types of shots we wanted and how it would all work and come together.

COMPOSITION RULES - FILM MAKING

Composition rules can be applied to all art forms in life as they are what make up an effective images or series of moving images such as film shots. There are over a hundred different rules of composition for film making and people spend years studying them and their effects on film. Here are the most well known and necessary ones:

Different types of Shot Size
-Close Ups, are used very often in film as they allow the audience to feel intermit with the actors and feel involved with the scene. Close ups are used to portray emotion and detail. In music videos close ups can be used to put an emphasis on different things such as the hands playing an instrument or the eyes of the lead singer.
- Mid Shots are used when the camera wants to be close to the subject but not so close that you are unable to distinguish what is in the shot. A mid shot may be used to film the face and head to portray expression.
- Long Shots are used often when there is a lot of action going on, this shot enables the audience to see what is going on, if there was a fight taking place the audience would be close enough top be involved but further away enough to see the whole scene play out.
- Extreme Long Shots or Establishing shots are used to set a time or place and to establish where a scene is, they will often give the audience a view of the surroundings to enable to show them where they are.

Camera Position and Angle
- Low angled shots can say a lot about a character. Shots like this let the audience know that this character has a higher status and that they are possibly arrogant, powerful or a ‘hero’.
- High angled shots make the subject or person look inferior as we as an audience are looking down on them, it makes them seem powerless and weak.
- Flat on angled camera can make the subject look boring as there is no depth of field or shadows to the person.

Camera Movement
- Tracking shots are used all the time throughout filming, it tells the audience subconsciously more than we realise about a character. Tracking shots that move from left to right can often let the audience know that the person who is being filmed is good, as it is natural for our eyes to read from left to right where as a tracking shot that moves from right to left can tell us that that person is bad as they have entered from the right side of the screen which is not the natural direction that our eyes look from.
- Crane shots are used regularly throughout filming as they allow the audience to get a sense of space and movement in the camera. Crane shots can often be used when a camera swoops over a certain area and then moves in on the character. Crane shots can also be used as establishing shots or to create angled shots.

Lighting
- Lighting is used to create effects or set a theme or mood in filming. It also tells us a lot about a character in a film, for example dark lighting with shadows may suggest mysterious and bad where as lots of backlighting as well as spot lighting can create a halo effect on a character and give them a very angelic look. It can completely change an emotion or a time of day in filming. There are a few essential lights that will almost always be used in filming which are a spot light, fill light and back light. These are essential at times as they enable the audience to see what is happening and who the characters are.

Rule of Thirds

- - The rule of thirds can be applied to all forms of art, it is when an image or shot is broken up into 9 parts in thirds with certain ‘hot spots’ that lead the eye around the image or shot. People may be placed on these hot spots to draw attention to them, a shot is set up so that the eye reads across the rule of thirds. If the rule is broken and a person or object is placed off one of the hot spots it will most likely be for a reason, our eye is naturally drawn to one of the hot spots so when something is placed off of one of the hot spots the audience subconsciously makes a decision about that character or person letting us know that they are rebellious, quirky or bad.

Colours
- Colours say a lot more about a person or a set than people realise. Even the colours of lighting play a huge part in setting an atmosphere or a mood for something. Clothing can let an audience know a lot about a certain character for example the classic white clothing for good and black for evil. Yet other colours say so much more. If you wanted to portray an image of an energetic and exciting band you may dress them in reds, yellows or oranges as these colours are alert minded, outgoing, physical, active, creative, sociable with sunny or bright ideas, but if you wanted to create a band which has calming influences and is more relaxed you may use blues, purples, browns and turquoises to give off a more peaceful atmosphere with softer influences.

Shapes and Lines
- Shapes and lines are another thing that can say a lot about your band or the characters in your scene as they create a mood, horizontal lines are more relaxed lines where as vertical lines a harsher and more direct, diagonal lines can be used to create an atmosphere of action and movement. So if you add all of the rules and elements together such as the colours, lighting, lines and camera angles and movements you can tell the audience so much about a person or a group without saying anything.