Reflecting back on the AS year: Music video

These were the images taken during the making of our lip sync practice.

Music video made in the begining of course

Looking for right setting.

Screen grabs of editing in process

Screen grabs (2)

Camera man

A scene being filmed - On the phone.

Setting chosen.

Digipak.

Strengths:
- Layout of my digipak is correct.
- Every feature found on digipaks, I have cooperated into my own.
Weaknesses:
- The design of my digipak was not the most creative.

Technical skills developed and learnt:

Reflecting back on the AS year-Technical skills

I have learnt different technical skills during the AS course.

Using a camera: 
- Setting up camera stand etc
- Zooming and focusing. Different shot types for different reasons.
Eg. Close ups on face to view the characters facial expression.
- Establishing shots.

 Using Macs and software's:
- Uploading videos from the hard drive to the Macs.
- Using final cut pro to edit shots placing still images into 'moving images'.
- The use of Handbrakes  to convert videos to MP4's
- Using the software 'Soundtrack pro' to create a soundtrack for our thriller.
- Using 'Live type' to create titles and credits - Finding the right font, effects etc to with thriller opening.
Eg. Title: 'The Census'. So we found a effect that crosses out the title going with the storyline of thriller.
- Importing all of the above to 'Final cut pro' and also exporting files.

NEW SKILLS. I've developed using lip synching:
- Knowing the use of a base track and laying one down.
- Putting a point at particular beats in a song (keeping rhythm)
- Using the cut tool to cut ports of the clips/track

TINIE TEMPAH - just a little -Lyrics

[chorus]I don’t wanna think about you, all day long.

I don’t wanna dream about you, girl I do miss you. Just a little, just a little, just a little,

okay maybe more than just a little bit.

[verse 1]Yeah, I'm done confusing you girl, we both come from two different worlds. And you don’t wanna come around mine, but what happened that night was the usual drill. Head over heels, with ya head over heels. How many times did I say I'm no good, girl even your friends know the deal. So what you phoning me still? If you don’t hear no evil, then you won’t see no evil, girl I don’t wanna be no hero. We had a little fling on the dealo, and I ain’t really sure how I feel so I'm in a club with a bottle of verclico and that's why I can’t let you beat my ego.

[chorus]I don’t wanna think about you,

all day long. I don’t wanna dream about you, girl I do miss you. [ 

 Just a little, just a little, just a little,

okay maybe more than just a little bit.

[verse 2]Maybe your used to pain, love is a losing game. Why’d I let you feel the flame, I think I'm falling I refuse to say. Usually this is never gonna work at all, first of all it was too personal, so when you phone me I gotta divert the call cause when you take the lead your gonna fly the fool but I, don’t wanna deal with the commotions I don’t do commitments, I don’t do devotion that's why you sent a letter to me, that I never opened. Give me space to breathe so I can deal with my emotions.

[chorus]I don’t wanna think about you, all day long.

I don’t wanna dream about you, girl I do miss you.

Just a little, just a little, just a little,

okay maybe more than just a little bit.

Skills Audit.

i have developed many skills since my AS practicle work-thriller opening especially learning how to edit which was my major weakness at the beginning but now is has improved by doing alot of practice.Learning how to use a Video Camera and mastering good angle shots.

• Final cut pro                 
• sound cut pro
• Blogger
• Researching
• using the Video/hard drive
• screen grabbing 
• still cameras
• video cameras

 

What i have learned about the state of the music industry

The record industry traditionally has 2 sides.
Mainstreams labels -large organisations with revenue available for different acts and are therefore able to saturate markets an offer.
Independent labels - seperate and operate independently the mainstream labels.often within niche genres and cater to a specific market.


Aim of artist
to be signed to a label in orderto promote their music to the target audience and sell a maximum number of albums.


Who owns the Music?
Record labels- you sell it for $18.98 and make 90cs ...who made the rule ..the record label and artist.


Ownership - Between the 1970 and late 1990, the industry was dominated by the big 6. The late 90s saw merging of companies into bigger companies to create 'the Big 5'. In 2004 sony Music and BMG merged and the market was dominated by the Big 4 which are Universal,sony,EMI and warner.


Falling sales- Profit Margins
2010-319m
2009-366m
2008-428m
People have stop going to shops and are downloading music illegally.1.2 billion illegal downloads in the uk in 2010(youtube Mp3 converter software).
Streaming- Sites can be free or by paid subscription and free sites cover their cost with their advertising revenue.


Social Networking sites
Facebook to offer a music streaming
File sharing service to indicate who is listening to what on status updates
Google plus to offer a similar services.


Artist websites
Independent artist can sell their music on their own websites which means that they wont be loosing out on money as the direct sales goes towards them. This is a major loss to the music industry .

Student video

We viewed a few music clips from a previous year. i really enjoyed the love song which the colour red was representing. Had a good use of transitions such as wipe and cuts.
http://vimeo.com/8533837

laura mulvey

Dizzie Rascal holiday

Laura mulvey representation -

Her concept of "to-be-looked-at-ness", exemplifies that women were merely shown on screen in classic Hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have an erotic impact. The image of an artist in a music video will have been carefully planned from the clothes choice and the style of hair according to the narrative.Mulvey talks about women being "dismembered"the main focus is their bodies for example "the holiday" by Dizzie rascal music video is a typical way of how women are seen. We are first introduced to a female in a bikini but the camera does not really focus on her face as her identity has been covered by the sunglasses but most of the focus is on parts of her body such as breast,bum,legs e.t.c as its goes on through out the whole video. However men are also shown as a whole.
Mulvey points out the "Male Gaze" styled accordingly to the female figure.

Nelly- Hot in here. Women are portrayed in a sexual way as its mostly their body parts being shown, they are the main focus to the camera.We see men dancing behind women holding champagnes in their hand with plenty of girls surrounding them as if they are in control. The song talks about a club and girls. Male vocalist-"its getting hot in here so take off all your clothes" the female vocalist will respond saying-"i am getting so hot i want to take my clothes off". So this is shown as Visual pleasure for the males and that females are an object.

Carol vernallis

• There is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance
• The narrative is not always complete
• The structure of the video may appear disjointed
• Describes how verbal, musical, and visual codes combine in music video to create defining representations of Race,Class,Gender.
• Camera may move in time the music.

LADY GAGA POKER FACE

• The video is cut in time to the beat
• Uses alot of fancy and jump cuts
• There are lots of close ups and extreme close ups of mainly her face but also her body
• The structure of the video is very disjointed as it cuts from different locations.
• Lady Gaga is shown throughout in both perfomance and narrative.
• Master track is of her dancing when the songs goes back to the chorous and the base track is the close ups of her face when she sings the versus

Andrew Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwin theory says that the traditional narrative analyses of a music video which starts at the beginning and resolves at the end does not really apply to pop videos as the structure is different. Pop videos uses the singer both as a narrator and as a character and mostly looks at the camera directly addressing the audience to the performance also known as breaking the forth wall.He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. So there are 3 types of relations between songs and videos


























.

Illustration: this is where the video tells the story of the lyric"pap dont preach-Madonna.Dance is often used to express the feelings in the song


Disjuncture: little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Can’t stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. song seems to be a documentary about evolution and the video shows the band having fun with equipment trying to experiment new things.

Amplification: images support the word - videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but adds layers to the meanings and its closely related to disjuncture. Jessie j (price tag). Song is about the un-importance of money and embracing individuality. At the begining of the video there is an image of a teddy bear with no arm and one eye which symobolises the destroying of something that is very important to child hood.
Pop videos often repeats choruses or lines which links to the repetition of images so we can predict what genre it is and the intertexuality of the song becomes familiar.

 

Analysis of a music video.

Kanye West - All Of The Lights

This is one of my favourite music videos as its very flashy as the feeling of the lights are personified with life as its to do with Criminals- (cop lights) ,Partying-(strobe lights) ,Paparazzi (flash lights) and drugs(street lights). Each light has its own meaning as kanye explains the different lights and life. 

The video starts in Black and white so we don't straight away go into the flashy scenes with an intro as we see a little girl walking in snow then as she turns to looks into the camera  the lights start to flash on her. we then see the artist name in a Bold font followed by the featuring people. The edits that are used for this video is quite fast and jumpy as it matches the pace of the song. The narrative is verse chorus verse chorus as we are first introduced to the main artist of the song. Slow motions and Close ups shots are often used to show emotion and gives detail. The song also relates to the video( Illustration)

 as its tells a story of a man who abused his wife and went to prison, came back but still cares about her and wants to raise his daughter in a good area."Cant let her grow up in that ghetto uni".He wants a better life for her. Chorus is sung by Rhianna, we see her centred in the middle at a mid shot as she dances. Basically these things can be amplified and bought to life.

what makes a music video a music video ?

• Music track
• Lighting
• lip synching
• types of cuts (non linear editing)
• slow motions/transitions
• change of outfit
•  Edit to the beat
• Structure - verse/chorous
• dance and performance
• repetition of images.

La roux - Bullet proof.
song is about her being hurt in a relationship and now moving on as she is "Bullet Proof". In the video the artist is shown walking through different elements and graphic scenes such as checked coloured walls,Pianos. It creates a dramatic effect. Fast editing.Bright colours e.t.c.

what is the function/purpose of a music video?

1.Establishes the artist image and genre.

2.Sell the song

3.makes song memorable

4.Promoting film + brands e.g Diddy has his vodka.

5. Motivate the audience e.g- Micheal Jackson "Earth song"

6.Visual links across Promo material

7.Change of an image -(Good girl Gone Bad -Rhianna

8.To promote the artists latest single with a view to sell the single and ultimately the albulm to the audience.
9.Aired on MTV and other music channels in form of a play list.

Research for music video. copyright clerance

To rizzle.uk@gmail.com

From:	Beverley owusu (bevz1@hotmail.co.uk)
Sent:	28 September 2011 14:38:49
To:	rizzle.uk@gmail.com

---

To whom may concern, i am student of A-level Media studies and for my Advanced Portfolio i will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. i would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledge in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song i should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly. 

Yours faithfully 

Beverley Owusu-osei

Music skills

Viewed a rock band on stage.
Final cut pro- edited the video in time with the beat (lip sync)…cut the soundtrack after every five counts.
Students were given a sound track “The greatest dancer”
Made our own music video for that sound track then edited it.
Digi pack cover was done on photo shop to represent our song.

lip synchronization- matching lip movement in time with a song/vocal.

This a clip that i found on youtube A good example of lip sync.

Reflecting back on the AS year-Technical skills

I have learnt and developed different technical skills during the AS course.
Positioning of a camera can have different effects on the viewer and different meanings. We first had to practice how to use camera and learn the shot types as this was done for our prelim trial run before the filmmaking.
　
Camera movement - Panning - camera stays still but the camera moves from left or right.
Tracking- when the camera base moves sideways to follow action, which is usually on a set of rails.
Handheld-used to show characters point of view
Tilting -camera base remains still while the camera moves vertically up or down.
Extreme long shot
Wide shot
Close up
Mid shot
Medium close up
Over the shoulder shot
Cutaway-(for example a programme may cut away to another event to show something not in the scene as they may link
Cut in (something show in detail )
Two shot
Establishing shot- opening shot of a programme
Low/high angle - shows power relationships
Point of view shots- so the viewer can empathise with a certain situation.
We need to know exactly what it is and where it is that we will be filming also why an
Object has been placed there and how effective it is.
Setting and décor
Costume and make up (feelings can be expressed through them)
Body language/ movement
Lighting (dark -light can be about the character of a programme.
Props. Sound (soundDiegectic- sound on set (voice
Non diegetic (sound effect
Sound bridge ( linking two scenes together
Dialogue
Sound effects
Motif (introduces the character e.g. superman.
Accent (regional identityEditing -
This was the final thing we done.
Different types of edits I have also learnt how to upload videos from the hard drive to the Macs.
　Shot/reverse shot ( most often used in conversations
Cross cut ( takes us from one situation to another
Match cut (mid shot of a gun then cuts to a close up of the gun shooting the object
Transition ( effects) slow/fast motion - we used a lot of this in our film as this expressed the characters feelings
Ellipsis( invents that happen in an amount of time) the use of final cut pro using to edit our thriller Film on the apple Macs. I found this the most challenging but I got use to using final cut pro and improved. cut pro to import sound effects and music in our film. This was my main part as I was the sound women during our filmmaking.
Shot types
Mise-en-scene -

AS Music video trial

This was our first attempt at creating a music video using a base track. We were given the song 'Greatest Dancer by

Artist:Beverley

Director: Mica

Editor: Jourdane

 learning the lyrics

EQUIPMENT

Below are the shots we took to create our digipack

Reflecting back on the AS year: digipak

Unfortunately as i was in the middle of completing my digi pack cover the mac crashed which led to not having enough time to make another one.
it contains

• Name of the album
• Name of the artist
• Logo
• Track list
• copyright
• CD
• Background information about the artist /Record company
• Graphic design-images.

On the spine of the package the artist ,title and reference number are repeated so that it is easy to identify in the music shop-layout.